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NEW YORK: 
LAMPORT, BLAKEMAN & LAW, 

NO . 8 P ARK PL AC E. 

1853. 



No. -I 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the, year 1853, by 

LAMPORT, BLAKE MAN & LAW, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the 

Southern District of New York. 



^ 



<^ 






Gantnts 



Page. 

Dedication, ---------- 7 

Preface, --..--.. . . 9 

The Start, 11 

Milan, ----- 24 

Excursion to Como, -------- 37 

Genoa, - ----66 

La Riviera, 79 

Marseilles, -.---87 

The Kingdom of the Spains, ------ 94 

Madrid, - Ill 

Excursion from .Madrid, ------ 165 

The Royal Palace, -------- 201 

Highway to Seville, -------- 242 

Andalucia, - - - - - -- - - - 265 

Seville, ---------- 270 

Cadiz, 333 

Gibraltar, ---------- 352 

Malaga, -- 366 

Granada, - - - - - - - - - - 379 

Barcelona, - - - - ' - - - - - - 437 

End of the Traces, 450 



ttUtt. 



Reader ! From the magnificent nature of the scenery which 
characterizes the whole chain of the Italian lakes, and pre- 
eminently claims for Genoa the title of "The Superb City," 
as well as from the noble specimens of architectural beauty, 
that charm the eye in the Lombardian and Spanish domin- 
ion, I had at first conceived that no better name than "La 
Superba," could have been selected for the contents of this 
book. 

But, laying aside mere verbal advantage, I have chosen, 
rather, the most simple among the many names suggested 
by my friends and the subject matter, and offer that which 
carries the strongest conviction of its fitness, since it embraces 
a description of those splendid nations, who, overrunning in 
their turn, both the northern part of Italy and Spain, left 
such vestiges in these countries, as will ever be easily recog- 
nized in the Traces of the Roman and Moor. 



PREFACE. 



Simply adding, that in the drawing of these sketches, I 
have not hesitated to levy contributions from certain dis- 
tinguished travelers in Southern Europe, I bid adieu to my 
silent friends in the public, and, wishing them all god-speed, 
pray that Providence may ever continue to them the same 
prosperity and health that has enabled His servant to bring 
this book to a successful conclusion. 

The Author. 



Bloomingdale, August^ 1853. 



THE START. 

Our flight from Venice was sudden. News came to the 
Piazza of Saint Mark that the railroad over the Lagoon had 
been broken up, and that the Austrian troops were advancing 
upon Venice, Padua was then in a state of siege — our 
retreat was therefore cut off in that direction. The opinion 
we had once entertained of the advantages of railroads in time 
of war, then proved a fallacy ; and we were forced to hurry 
away from Venice in the best way we could. Hence, this 
abrupt break in our traces caused us again to travel. 

We had no alternative but to escape by sea, and having 
hastily packed our trunks and locked our valises, we sent them 
away by the porter, who took them to the quay near the 
Ducal Palace. Whilst I was busy about the hire of a boat 
for Choggia, my friends went to Jlorian's for a hamper of 
provisions. 

Our counsel met us on Saint Mark's soon after we had 
closed the contract, and helped us to buy a good supply of 
bread, wine, and Bologna sausages. He proved his Vir- 
ginian gentility by this little act of courtesy. We were all 
sorry we had not met him before. 

The truth was, we were in a fright in our flight. Appre- 



12 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

tension and alarm had seized our minds, and we had not the 
heart to stop. We must have been great cowards and very 
"wicked, when no man pursued us" on the sail over the 
Lagoon. 

About three o'clock we stepped into one of the common boats 
of the country, bound for some port in the distance. It was 
managed by a fisherman of the Adriatic, and a " lassie" whom 
we took for his daughter — a fair and portly girl of a merry 
eye, and full of laughter, not far from twenty, and still in her 
teens. The figure of our female companion was greatly swol- 
len by the bundles of cotton goods which she had concealed 
under the folds of her dress. When she afterwards amused us 
by the removal of her surplus weight, our eyes were opened to 
the extent of the smuggling trade carried on by the boats 
which ply regularly from Venice to the different ports in the 
Adriatic. 

Taking advantage of the roguishness of her disposition, we 
all joined in a hearty laugh at the Custom House officer, who 
stopped us at the Dogano; and leading this little incident to 
a familiarity, we enjoyed a very delightful sail, under the 
influence of a fine breeze and a clear sky, so that we arrived at 
Chioggia an hour before sunset. The smiling coast of Chioggia 
deserves to be visited for the character of its lively and indus- 
trious inhabitants, and the beauty of its women, for it was 
thence that Titian obtained his most expressive and ideal 
heads. We saw several beautiful girls in the shops which 
lined the borders of the canal. We had but little time to 
spend in observing the noisy personages on the quay, or any 
object of interest in the town, for the short interval of our 
sojourn was fully occupied in procuring a boat, and the pass- 
ports and countersigns for the guards on the coast. Having 



MYSTERIOUS FLIGHT. 13 



obtained a smaller boat, we started with a fresh breeze, and 
by the light of a lovely moon, which gladdened the whole 
surface of the Adriatic, were soon flying fast over its waters 
in the direction of Brondolo. . During the journey, we were 
attended by a sergeant of the village, who enabled us to use 
signs and countersigns as we passed by the sentinels at their 
posts, and answer the challenges given by the officer on duty. 
Neither of our party knew much about this mysterious flight 
from Brondolo to Cavazera. The full moon shed her broad 
masses of light over the region of the coast by which we sailed, 
and the fatigues of the day already incurred, inviting us to 
slumber, I dropped myself down at the bottom of our boat, and 
having folded my long shawl over my body, was soon lost in 
oblivion and asleep. 

At Cavazera we hired a vettura, and were conveyed along 
the banks of the Adige to the town of Rovigo, and thence by 
several changes of vehicles, for no other change occurred to 
relieve our journey, we hastened back to Ferrara. Late in 
the afternoon of the same day we found ourselves under the 
hospitable roof of the "Swiss Pension" at Bologna. 



TO MILAN. 

At Bologna I made an arrangement with a voiturin who was 
to conduct me to Milan. This humble mode of traveling is 
indeed the most commodious in Italy. It is true that one has 
not always bon souper, bon gite et le reste; but the voiturin 
undertakes for the whole of the expense, and one is not troubled 
about the necessaries of life. Duclos, with the dignity of men 
of letters in his time, received wine, oil, chocolate, and other 



14 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

provisions from the ministers and noblemen with whom he 
lodged ; but those usages are now out of vogue, and though 
the regimen of some of the voiturin's hostelries is rather spare, 
it is still preferable to extending those parasitical habits even 
to the highways. There are, moreover, some inconveniences, 
such as fairs and feasts of towns or villages, the passage of 
rivers or torrents, in which the experience of the voiturin is very 
serviceable. This species of Mentor in smock-frock and cap is 
nearly always a very good fellow, and I can say that mine, 
Mariano Marini, was excellent. His mode of life is also very 
agreeable : joyfully received and welcomed by his hosts, and 
held in consideration all along the road on account of the 
money he expends and the kind of train he brings with him, 
this perpetual traveler is a true citizen of the world. He 
traverses all the great capitals, but still preserves his jargon, 
his manners, and his primitive character. An habitual specta- 
tor of the wonders of art or the beauties of nature, his almost 
stoical indifference contrasts with the astonishment and enthu- 
siasm of the travelers he conducts ; slow as he is, he has no 
object in traveling but to reach his journey's end ; he is of a 
positive turn of mind, and his little stages, indicated and written 
down beforehand, are as irrevocable as the decrees of destiny. 

Should the merit of my favorite voiturins seem thereby 
somewhat lessened, I should think myself deficient in impar- 
tiality, the paramount duty of the traveler as well as the his- 
torian, if I did not say a word or two respecting the sagacity 
of their horses, and of the habits and singular acquaintance 
with the great roads that they ultimately acquire. A master- 
voiturin of Rome, I have been told, had engaged to conduct 
from that city to Paris a numerous English family with all their 
baggage. He had no one at liberty but a new hand who had 



THE V0ITURIX. 15 



never been that road. But the mare Julie was there, and the 
master recommended the driver to follow her directions respect- 
ing the stages and the hours of starting, which she indicated by 
certain motions, flutterings, or the shaking of her bells ; the 
man was prudent enough to conform to this advice, not imitat- 
ing the muleteers of the Duke of Yendome, who, he said, were 
always wrong in their disputes with the mules. The journey 
was very favorable, and Julie, harnessed to a splinter-bar before 
the other four, led the human load from Rome to Paris. 

In your treaty with the voiturin, a written contract which 
ought to be worded with as much precision as the lease of a 
house, or an agreement with a publisher, there is an important 
variation which I must mention : instead of breakfast (colla- 
zione) and of dinner (pranzo) which in general exposes you to 
having only a middling cup of coffee in the morning and a late 
and unwholesome supper, you must stipulate for two repasts 
(dice pasti) ; then you can demand soup in the morning, and a 
good dinner, that will allow you to wait till night. The poet's 
precept is very applicable in the case of a voiturin's agree- 
ment : — 

D'un mot mis en sa place enseigna le pouvoir. 

At early dawn the vetturino had packed us all snugly away 
in his vettura, (which by the way, is the best mode of traveling 
through Italy,) and we were started afresh on the route toward 
Milan. The road from Bologna to Modena crosses the Reno, 
somewhere in the neighborhood of Sammogia, was the former 
site of the famous island in which the Triumvirs met for three 
days; where they mutually bartered away the lives of their 
friends and enemies; where, in the frenzy of their cruelty, they 
even commanded every one, under pain of death, to rejoice at 



16 TRACES OF THE ROMAN" AND MOOR. 

their proscriptions; where, in short, Cicero's head was bar- 
gained for during two days, and became the pledge of their 
union. This island, diminutive in size, but equal in celebrity to 
the most noted in history, disappeared in an earthquake, as if 
nature, benevolent in her anger, had wished to sweep away all 
vestige of such atrocities. The river itself, the ancient Labi- 
nius, has lost its name, and appears there only a kind of strag- 
gling torrent in a field of gravel. 

The plains adjacent witnessed the dying struggles of Roman 
liberty; but Anthony's defeat at Modena made no real change 
in the state of affairs. The Senate did not take warning from 
it, and the fate of the consuls, Hirtius and Pansa, on the field 
of battle, was but the prelude to the republican and stoical 
deaths of Brutus and Cassius. 

Our halt at Modena during the oppressive heat of noon, 
afforded us an opportunity to view the town and some of its 
remarkable points. We found the inns along this entire jour- 
ney far better than we had anticipated, and every attention 
was paid to our comfort at the instance of the clever vetturino 
whom we had procured. 

Modena, with its porticos, had an air of comfort and pretti- 
ness. The palace, its gallery and library, are nearly all the 
town. This extensive and magnificent edifice, with its superb 
court, is out of proportion with the petty state of the sovereign 
who inhabits it. Such is the pomp ever required by sov- 
ereignty, however small it may be. The gallery received many 
paintings which had been returned from France, for almost all 
the masterpieces by Guereino, Guido, and the Carraccio, have 
traveled to Paris and back. The library of the palace, the 
famous old one of the house of Este, was honored by having 
for its managers two of the best writers in literary history, 



COLOSSUS OF LEARNING. It 

Muratori and Tiraboschi. Muratori was a colossus of learning, 
and besides being an excellent scholar and librarian, was a 
good parish priest, occupied with his poor, the guidance and 
salvation of his parishioners, and the service of his church. 
Tiraboschi was a prolix writer, and his History of Italian 
Literature, is more useful as a book of reference, than interest- 
ing to read. 

The library contains about 90,000 volumes, and possesses an 
old copy of the Bible, probably one of the first ever printed, 
which is remarkable for the clearness of its type and the black- 
ness of its ink, showing the perfection of the art of printing at 
its birth. Besides the numerous manuscripts of Tasso, and 
several beautiful and rare illustrated articles and missals, this 
library offers a rich treat to amateurs, in its scarce primitive 
editions, and altogether deserves to be placed in the first rank 
of the Italian libraries. 

La Ghirlandina, the steeple which we ascended in order to 
obtain an extensive view over this region, like all the campanile 
or bell towers of Italy, was detached from the cathedral ; which 
was of the Lombard Gothic order, and by no means so elegant 
a structure. 

The panorama, seen from this belfry, embraces an extent of 
circumference for sixty miles, and reached from Bologna on the 
south, to the outskirts of the town of Reggio on the north. 
Inside the steeple may be seen, hanging by its chain, the 
famous deal bucket taken from the Bolognese, and which, 
under the name of the Secchia Rapita, was prettily sung in 
a charming poem by Tassoni. 

About the hour of sunset we entered the pretty and well- 
built town. Reggio is a charming town, of so gay and pleasing 
an aspect, that if Ariosto was not born there, it may be said, 



18 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 



he ought to have been. It is altogether worthy of having been 
il natio nido (the natal nest) of that graceful poet. In spite of 
the inscription and the credulity of a celebrated traveler, the 
little rebuilt house in the Cathedral Square, was not the house 
in which Ariosto was born. This poet saw the light in the 
Castle of Reggio of which his father was the governor, and the 
false tradition which states his birth to have taken place "in 
the middle chamber of the first floor, towards the Square," 
arose half a century after his death ; it originated in the 
vanity of one of his mother's relatives who wished to give 
celebrity to the house she inhabited. 

The finest church in Reggio is the Madonna della Ghiara, 
which, with its dome in the centre, and four others at the extre- 
mities, presents a model of Saint Peter's in miniature, according 
to Michael Angelo's plan, before it was spoiled by Carlo Ma- 
derno, who reduced it from the Greek to the Latin cross, and 
destroyed its admirable unity. 

We only passed the night at Reggio; but the performance of 
the civic band, on the Cathedral Square lent an air of cheerful- 
ness and joy to the evening that we spent at the " Poste Hotel." 
The town seemed to us singularly clean, gay and agreeable, and 
the inhabitants courteous and full of animation ; a characteristic 
which satisfactorily explains the carelessness and non-chalance 
of a certain General of the Reggians portrayed by Tassoni, who 
was composing a madrigal, when the enemy came upon them, 
and being compelled to arm, 

Era stizzato 
Di non aver finito il madrigal. 

Was very sorry, 
For not having finished his madrigal. 



ALEXANDER. 19 



PARMA. 

We arrived at Parma about mid-day and spent the hour of 
noon in visiting some of its most interesting monuments. 

The Steccata, the finest church in Parma, built since the 
revival, will bear comparison with the most celebrated in Italy; 
on the ceiling is the famous Moses breaking the tables of the law, 
painted in clare-obscure, and Adam and Eve, by Parmegiano. 
This great and capricious artist had not finished the Adam, 
though he had taken the money for it, when, being seized with 
a passion for alchemy, he left off working at this ceiling to 
prosecute his vain researches. According to the rude usages 
toward artists then prevailing, he was thrown into prison, but 
he contrived to escape, and died shortly after, a solitary wan- 
derer from one hiding-place to another, at the age of thirty - 
seven, like Raphael, whose steps he had faithfully followed. 

The cupola representing the Virgin and Jesiis Christ sur- 
rounded by angels and saints, is one of Sojaro's finest works. 

On a grand stone tomb of Alexander Farnese are his helmet 
and sword with the single word, Alexander: it touches the 
heart because it holds a hero, while other tombs which have 
neither posterity nor ancestors, leave one nearly indifferent. 

Near the church of Saint Louis, is the celebrated chamber 
of Correggio, in the old convent of Saint Paul. The paintings 
of this chamber, the first that Correggio did at Parma, were 
ordered by his generous protectress, the abbess Giovanna, 
daughter of a Parmesan noble, before the monastery was sub- 
jected to closure, and when the splendid and independent 
abbess, named for life, was, like most of them in her time, 
thrown into the midst of the affairs, pleasures, and vanities of 
the world. 



20 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

Over the fire-place is a fresco representing Diana in the 
clouds in a golden car drawn by two white hinds. The ceiling 
is azure, and covered with graceful genii wantoning amid ovals 
pierced through a vast treillage ; beneath, faces painted in 
camaieu present, face-wise and perfectly naked — the Graces, 
Fortune, the Fates, Minerva, Adonis, Endymion — figures 
imitated from the antique, and worthy of it, which prove how 
intensely the artist had studied, notwithstanding the uncertainty 
of his abode at Rome. The three crescents, Giovanna's arms, 
the crozier, sign of her dignity, placed on the keystone of the 
vault and surrounded with a golden crown, surmount this 
voluptuous and pagan decoration, mixed with profane inscrip- 
tions in Greek and Latin, and which seem to belong rather to 
some house of Herculaneum or Pompeii than the ceiling of an 
abbess' closet. 

Parma may be called the capital of Correggio's talent ; and 
the Gallery of the ducal palace contains the greatest number of 
his works. St. Jerome, his master-piece, returned from Paris 
after the period of the illustrious pillages in 1198. The saint 
has really usurped the appellation of this picture, as it contains 
the Virgin, infant Jesus, Magdalen caressing and kissing his 
feet with the tenderest expression of respect. St. Jerome is 
one of the two other figures, with two angels and his lion. The 
history of this painting, executed in 1524, shows that the social 
position of artists was then very inferior; Briseis Cossa, the 
widow who ordered it, only allowed Correggio 47 sequins 
($110), and his board for the six months that he worked at it ; 
»she had, however, the munificence to add to these fees, two loads 
of wood, some measures of wheat, and a fat pig. 

This whole collection is remarkable for the choiceness of its 
works and other judicious selection, and arrangement. The 



SUPERB MARBLE. 21 



Cathedral and Baptistry of Parma are in the first rank of 
Italian Gothic monuments ; but, with the marble that decorates 
them, may also be seen the imprint of Italian taste, preoccupied 
by contemplating the wrecks of antiquity, and which has not 
that daring ignorance, the source of the singular beauties and 
fantastic grandeur of the Gothic edifices of the North. 

The cupola, painted by Correggio, the first of cupolas, cannot 
be conveniently subjected to a close examination. Though 
much injured, it is impossible not to admire those superb 
remnants of painting, not less finished when closely viewed 
than brilliant at a distance, and that Assumption, so lively, 
blissful, and triumphant. 

A rich cenotaph had been erected to Petrarch in the chapel 
of Saint Agatha, in the cathedral in which he was archdeacon 
and canon, an ecclesiastical title and dignity forming a singu- 
lar contrast with his fame as a lover and a poet. Petrarch 
directed his body to be buried in the cathedral in case he died 
at Parma, although, as he himself avows, he had resided there 
but very little, and was at best but a very indifferent arch- 
deacon. 

The superb Baptistry, entirely of marble, is of the end of the 
twelfth century. It is ornamented outside with- statues and 
basso-relievos, presenting incidents from the Old and New 
Testaments, and curious hieroglyphics. The interior is no less 
characteristic; the ceiling is covered with Gothic and Greek 
frescoes of the middle ages; Diana and Apollo are there placed 
in juxta-position with the history of St. John and the figures of 
the prophets, evangelists, and apostles. The profane in those 
barbarous ages, conjoined with the sacred ; so much do the 
emblems of paganism still seem mixed with those of Chris- 
tianity. The coloring and gilding of these frescoes, after 



22 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 



more than five centuries, are still wonderfully brilliant, and 
prove that they were laid on with extraordinary skill. 

Selva Plana, fifteen miles from Parma, the beloved retreat 
of Petrarch, whither he retired after being crowned at Rome, 
presents no vestige of his residence there. The house formerly 
called Casa alle pendici, from its situation half way up an accli- 
vity, has almost disappeared in our days; it was standing sixty 
years ago; at present nothing remains but the woods and the 
prospect extending to the Alps, and commanding the whole of 
Cisalpine Gaul. Such an abode must have inspired a poet 
and Petrarch has duly celebrated it: "This immense forest on 
a verdant hill, is called Plana, though a steep ascent; 'the 
earth there engenders beeches with lofty branches to ward 
off the burning rays of the snn, and young delicate flowers of 
variegated colors; a limpid stream and the cool breeze from 
neighboring mountains, temper the heats of Cancer and Leo 
The summits of the cloud-capt mountains tower above the 

forest Thousands of birds and animals of various kinds 

inhabit its sacred shade; a brook rushes down the hill and 
refreshes the young turf in its wandering course. In its bosom 
is a flowery bower made by no artist's hand, but created by 
nature, the friend of poets, to give them inspiration: there, the 
warbling of birds, combined with the murmurs of the stream 
invites to grateful slumbers: the grass affords a charming 
couch; the boughs protect you with their shade, and the moun- 
tains shelter you from the southern winds. The rude swineherd 
has never defiled such a refuge with his feet; the peasant points 
thereat with his mattock or his finger, and the guardian of the 
woods tremblingly reveres it from the mountain top. The 
breath there inhales a marvelous perfume; its aspect presents 
a picture of the Elysian fields, and this secluded spot is the 



BRIDGE OF LODI. 23 



peaceful retreat of the wandering muses. I steal away thither 
and escape the world and society." 

A decree of the Duchess of Parma has directed a monument 
to be erected to Petrarch's memory, on the site of his house at 
Selva Plana; this monument, amid the cottages of the present 
village, will recall from afar the poet's glory and felicity. 

Notwithstanding our short stay at Parma, our sojourn there 
was agreeably entertained by the many illustrious monuments 
of the town. On the road to Fiorensole, we passed the pictu- 
resque old Castle Guelfo, in ruins, which were beautifully clad 
with rich masses of ivy, which hung like a mantle over its 
forlorn condition, as if struggling to conceal the deep ravages 
which time had made in an edifice which once resounded with 
the pomp and pageant of the Feudal lords. — Even this quaint 
little town had its glorious Cathedral, the pride and boast 
of the parish, whose inhabitants were shoemakers, and they 
seemed no less occupied for liberal provisions of their soul, as 
they now seemed to be busy with the soles of other people. 
We were struck here, as in many other towns through which 
we had passed, with the pretty faces and picturesque costumes 
of these villages, and most particularly were we pleased with 
the neat arrangement of the head-dresses which were peculiar 
to this parish. 

Before sunrise our vetturino called us for a fresh start, and 
soon after we were on our way, by the road to Milan which 
leaves the town of Piacentia, somewhat to the left. Beyond the 
point whence we caught a sight of this distant town, we were 
obliged to cross the Po. 

At noon we reached the town of Lodi, and had time to 
examine the position of the celebrated bridge, which formed 
so remarkable a chapter in the battles of Napoleon. 



24 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

The road beyond Lodi to Milan, shows the peculiar features 
of the rich plains of Lombardy, their labored cultivation, and 
the excellent system of irrigation which sustains the abun- 
dance of this region. The culture of the rice plant proves the 
fecundity of the soil, and its effects by the miasmatic airs are 
depicted in the dwarfish appearance and sallow aspect of the 
inhabitants of these flats. 



MIL AN. 

It is impossible not to be struck even in passing, with the 
appearance of wealth, commerce, and industry of this great city, 
as you enter it by the gate of the Porta Romano. Moonlight 
lent an increased charm to the serial beauty of the minarets and 
thousand statues which adorn the form of the noble Duomo, 
and heightened the effects of its brilliant architecture, by an 
aspect which daylight even did not entirely dissipate, so majes- 
tic, and fairy-like, and beautiful are the outlines and properties 
of this Gothic, religious edifice. 

The French aspect of Milan, so happily noticed by Montaigne, 
from its resemblance to Paris, and confirmed by Tasso, in the 
partial and unjust parallel which he wrote at Paris, is most con- 
spicuous in the palaces of the prince — those brilliant imitations 
of the imperial residences of Prance, but less magnificent. La 
Villa, with its English garden and its position in the interior of 
the city, is the Elysee Bourbon of this bastard Paris ; and 
Monza, — of the Iron Croivn memory — three leagues from 
Milan, reminds one of Saint Cloud. 

Despite of the lavish use of the title of palazzo, among the 
Italians, the palaces do not commonly sustain so superb an ap- 



WHITE AND GORGEOUS. 25 

pellation, but unless devoted to some public service, they are, in 
general, more modestly and properly called houses. 

The Duomo is a prodigy of labor ! Even should the edifice be 
completed, and its four thousand statues added to the hundred 
pinnacles, and perched upon it, the Duomo would still be but 
an enormous toy, with more boldness and singularity than 
beauty of design. All this marble crowd seems alike in form 
and expression, and its whiteness like that of the building is 
painful to the eye. Having been constructed after the plan of 
the Cathedral of Cologne, like all imitations it falls short of the 
primitive grandeur of its model, and the minute, detailed orna- 
ments of the buttresses, seem rather meretricious additions to 
plain pilastres, than those graceful germs of architectural foli- 
age and delicate scroll-work, which form a part, or, rather, com- 
pose, the pleasing features of the purer Gothic of the North. 

Yet the lines of this gorgeous, pyramidical mass are elevating 
and attractive, whereon the sight mounts upward by so pleasing 
a succession of graduated effects, that the mind is also trans- 
ported aloft by a sympathetic movement of wonder and admi- 
ration. 

Standing on each side of the principal entrance, and drawn 
from the quarries of Lake Maggiore, are two gigantic colomns, 
each of a single piece of red granite ; they are perhaps the 
largest ever employed in any building. The choir, in beautiful 
design, is richly adorned by seventeen basso-relievos of a rare 
delicacy of touch, and the stalls are covered with superb sculp- 
tures from the designs of Pellegrino, Brambilia, Figini, and 
Meda, representing divers incidents of the life of Saint Am- 
brose, and other bishops of Milan. 

It would be difficult to avoid emotion on seeing in the sub- 
terranean chapel the body of Saint Charles Borromeo, who was 

2 



26 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

in a manner the hero of his country. The memory of this vast, 
ardent, and unbending genius, this kind of governing Saint, as 
also that of his family, is pre-eminent there above that of em- 
perors and kings. The holy archbishop is clothed in his ponti- 
fical robes enriched with diamonds ; his mitred head reposes on 
a golden cushion ; the sarcophagus is of transparent crystal, 
through which the features even of the great man may be easily 
contemplated. How great, truly, is the contrast of the word 
humilitas, the family device of the Borromeo family, which is 
written on the tomb, with so great a display of riches, in this 
shrine the ceiling of which is ornamented in silver relief, repre- 
senting serious scenes in the life of the Saint, whose tomb is 
encased with silver. 

From the top of the enormous pyramid of the Duomo — for 
there is in reality no steeple, its place being supplied by a kind 
of tower, ugly and ill-proportioned — from the top, we repeat it, 
of this sort of marble mountain, the view is truly admirable. 

The cultivated plains of Lombardy appear an ocean of ver- 
dure beneath the azure sky; the eye discovers at once the Alps 
and the Appenines, and this immense horizon is like a new 
and superb panorama of Italy. 

ANCIENT CHURCHES. 

Christian antiquity presents no older monument than the 
basilic of Saint Ambrose, erected in 38T, by the saint whose 
name it bears; it still exists, a real chaos of architecture, 
among those works of various and remote ages, which compose 
a shocking medley of art, plan, and interior. Italian architects 
have ever exhibited a carelessness in not retaining the primi- 
tive character of these edifices in repairing them. Before the 



BRAZEN SERPENT. 27 



church is one of those spacious courts, which the middle age 
art borrowed, imitated from antiquity, and are still found 
before many of the Italian houses of worship. It was there 
that, during the time of paganism, the profane remained, and 
where, in after times, the rigorous public penance of the early 
church took place. There is something religious in the aspect 
of these old porticos, and they nobly separate the sanctuary 
from the tumult of cities. 

In this church there is an immense old pulpit of marble, op- 
posite to the modern one, it is pretty much like the gallery used 
by the Romans, in which the orators had room to walk about. 
These old pulpits are in much better taste than the kind of deal 
boxes suspended in our churches, above which rises a man, who 
twists and agitates himself, and seems ill at ease in so narrow a 
space. Were we not habituated to this manner of preaching, 
it would appear a very singlar exhibition. 

In the nave of Saint Ambrose, the famous brazen serpent is 
placed on a column — that some have even gone so far as to 
take for the one that Moses raised in the desert, or at least 
made of the same metal, and on which the learned have dis- 
cussed at a prodigious length. The populace are persuaded 
that it will hiss at the end of the world; and the sexton, one 
day when dusting it, having somewhat deranged it, the alarm 
became general when the ominous serpent was seen turned 
towards the door, and it was necessary to put it right immedi- 
ately, in order to allay the terror of those who already thought 
they heard it. 

This style of basilic is the most impressive after the Gothic. 
At morning service, at the hour of solemn mass, one cannot 
fail to be moved by the low, sweet strains of music which steal 
through the vaulted aisles, and mingle with the orisons of the 



28 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

penitents within; even should one not have faith in the religious 
forms* of the Romanist, he may exercise charity in these judg- 
ments which are always better suppressed than uttered. 

SPLENDOR OF THE ALTARS. 

The sumptuousness of the Italian churches, until one becomes 
used to it, appears truly wonderful. The altar, and even the 
pulpit, are sometimes set with agates and other precious stones. 
It must be difficult to speak in the midst of all these riches, 
and eloquent words must be requisite to touch an audience thus 
dazzled. I much fear that the precept of Horace may be often 
applied to the sermons delivered in these pulpits, 

Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem 
Quam quse sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus, 

Nevertheless, I have never shared the prejudices of the econo- 
mists against sumptuousness in altars. This sumptuousness 
tends to neither corruption nor dissipation like that of the 
world, but it is conservative and useful. There are some orna- 
ments also which can be appropriated to no other purpose, 
such as precious stones ; it would be difficult to put these 
objects of national pride in circulation ; then, is it not better to 
place them on an altar, where they add to the majesty of 
religion, and excite neither envy nor hatred, than to make them 
ornaments for the forehead of a courtesan or the sword of a 
despot ? 

The churches of Italy are generally shut for some hours in 
the middle of the day, namely, from twelve to four or five. 
There are none open during the whole day but the cathedrals, 
such as the Duomo of Milan, Saint Mark of Yenice, Saint 



THE BETTER PART. 29 



Peter of Rome, and the basalics. This regulation of closing 
the churches has something of Protestantism about it; it seems 
opposed to the religious manners of the Italians as well as to 
Catholic usages ; it is, moreover, inconvenient to travelers, who 
frequently have but little time to visit these churches, partly 
temples, partly museums. The entrance of strangers is annoy- 
ing to the worshippers, and not less disagreeable and painful 
to themselves. One feels uncomfortable and confused at find- 
ing oneself standing alone, guide-book in hand, in the midst of 
a crowd of persons kneeling and praying, occupied m counting 
the columns of vert antique, Carrara marble, and lapis-lazuli, 
surrounded by half-naked beggars. If you enter in the middle 
of a sermon, the embarrassment is not less ; the fire of the 
orator, the echoing burst of his voice amid the silence of his 
auditory, the fierce and animated expression of his countenance, 
contrast strangely with the cool indifference and somewhat 
awkward air peculiar to persons who are gazing round as if 
seeking for something. 

How many times has the piety and fervor of the worshippers 
appeared to me the letter part! And how vain the restless 
curiosity of the traveler beside the sublime simplicity of the 
believer ! It would be advisable to leave the morning to the 
services of worship ; for noon, the time of closing, is the precise 
moment when the light is the most favorable for the paintings. 
Despite Italian indolence, a more serious consideration ought 
to put an end to this injudicious practice ; independently of the 
frequent need of prayer that the soul experiences, how many 
faults, crimes even, have been prevented by fortuitously entering 
a church ! It is said that every body sleeps at that hour, but 
the unhappy and evil-doers sleep not, and the passions do not 
know a siesta. 



30 TRACES OF THE ROMAN* AND MOOR. 

At a period when there has been so much talk of ultra- 
montanism, our clergy would not do amiss to copy the Italians 
in the benches and the cleanliness of their churches ; France 
is the country, perhaps, where the Deity is worst templed, and 
her negligence on that point is a discredit to her high civili- 
zation. 

But there is one excess of zealous attentions that I will 
take care not to prescribe, since it is one of the greatest vexa- 
tions for the traveler. I allude to the mania which possesses 
the Italians for hanging their churches on holy days. On the 
eve of such days, the upholsterer, armed with his hammer and 
ladders, takes possession of the monument ; curious inscriptions, 
tombs of great men, all disappear under his hangings ; magnifi- 
cent columns of granite and Carrara marble are smothered 
under his tinselry; and there may be seen hanging on the front, 
or to the vaulted roof of some old basilic, or elegant temple of 
Bramante, Palladio, or Michael Angelo, long strips of various 
stuffs, yellow, white, pink, etc., as at the shop fronts of our 
linendrapers. This ludicrous embellishment, applied with such 
bad taste, is the same to architecture as paint is to the human 
face. I have even seen Saint Peter's decked out in this showy 
manner ; it is true that the vastness of its vaults made the 
upholsterer's task difficult enough, and that the little square 
bits of crimson-cloth that he had put up against the walls 
were hardly perceptible. The noisy labors of this artisan 
sometimes not being completed when the fete begins, are 
annoyingly continued during the services, while, on other occa- 
sion, he is in such haste that he begins to take down his finery 
before they are concluded, lest the brilliancy of such fine colors 
should be lost. 



PAINTERS POETS. 31 



THE C(ENACULUM. 

Placed in the refectory of the old monastery of Santa Maria 
delle Grazie, is the celebrated Last Supper, by Leonardo Yinci, 
still beautiful despite the ravages which have marred, and less 
injured by the hand of time, than despoiled by ruthless men. 
It was not difficult to recognise its beauty. Through the mists 
of ruin that envelope it, and the bungling retouching it has 
undergone, one may still discover the spirit, variety, expression 
and life of this admirable composition. The apartment which 
contains it served once as a stable and granary, and yet retains 
evidences of the barbarous abandonment in which the Domini- 
cans had formerly left the Ccenaculum, and of the revolutionary 
outrages inflicted in 17 9t, on this masterpiece of Leonardo. 

Parini, an ingenious and elegant Italian contemporary poet 
said, that the man capable of such a conception could have 
produced a poem. If the sight of these fine paintings excited 
and fed the pious musings which alleviated his sorrows, we may 
be pardoned if we fail to arouse a kindred sympathy by a de- 
scription of our view of them in their damaged condition. 

The face of the Saviour partook of miraculous feeling and 
the grouping of the Apostles was excellent and significant. 
Those of Judas, Peter and John show the effects of the 
highest contrasts, brought together by the medium of an harmo- 
nious character. The ardent temperament of Peter, the tried, 
earnest, generous and faulty disciple was in happy intervention 
between the love of John and the treachery of the perfidious 
Iscariot. There is also, clearly indicated, that expression of 
surprise, of mournful suspense and inquiry, at the moment when 
these memorable words were uttered, " One of you shall betray 



32 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

me;" and although the action of all the figures is intense and 
full, "all interest is absorbed by the touching agony of the 
Saviour," in the overflow of his sorrowful and sympathizing 
love which embodies the true idea of Piety, and seems to say, 
that his thoughts, like Himself, were not of this earth. Even 
though we had been prepared for a sight of this painting from 
the period of our earliest associations, it was still remarkable 
that even in its decay there are still the lingering traces of the 
beautiful, and those hallowed tones of feeling which are ever 
connected with, or attached to, whatever is perishing and truly, 
eminently, felt for ruins. 

LIBRARY AND OBSERVATORY. 

Besides the numerous private libraries in Milan, there are 
the Ambrosian and the public library of Brera. The latter 
has only a thousand manuscripts, among which are the famous 
choir-books of the Chartreuse of Pavia, but it contains one 
hundred and seventy thousand volumes, and is the best fur- 
nished of all the Italian libraries with modern books of science, 
natural history, and voyages. 

Our visit to the observatory, and a call on Professor Carlini, 
afforded us an hour full of instruction and remark. The instru- 
ments, with the exception of a transit, were very antiquated ; 
but the view from the upper tower of the star-gazer embraced 
the whole town, and its charming environs. The foundation of 
the observatory was formerly the tower of an ancient church, 
and dated from the year 1200. 

It may be, that the splendor of the Florentine, Bolognese 
and Roman museums of paintings, causes the gallery of Brera 
to be too much neglected, which was but recently begun. If it 



NOTE OX LAURA. 33 



has no great Titians, and is also destitute of other master- 
pieces, it possesses some admirable paintings of other masters 
of a school distinguished for simplicity, expression, force, and 
the marvelous gift of perspective. 

Raphael's Marriage of the Yirgin, a work of his youth, 
would not have been bettered by his after years ; for talent, 
when arrived at its perfection, often loses something of its sim- 
plicity and grace. He was twenty-one years old when he 
painted Lo Sposalizio : Guereino's Abraham dismissing Agar, one 
of his finest works, beams with expressions of her grief, whose 
countenance reveals intense mental suffering within. Besides 
an excellent Annunciation by Francesco Francia, attributed to 
Perugino, and an admirable head of an old man by Titian, 
there is an interesting though somewhat ordinary painting by 
Giovanni Sanzio, the father and first master of Raphael, a poor 
painter, but a man of good sense, who felt that his lessons 
were insufficient for such a pupil, and accordingly lost no time 
in consigning him to Perugino. 

THE AMBBOSIAN LIBRARY. 

The Ambrosian library containing over 60,000 volumes and 
10000 manuscripts, possesses among other remarkable works, 
the famous Yirgil of Petrarch, in which is his impassioned note 
on Laura, and an inscription by the poet, regarding his natural 
son, who had robbed his father, and given him much trouble. 
His Yirgil seems the depository of Petrarch's sorrows. Al- 
though the marginal notes, and those at the bottom of the 
page are lengthy and numerous, embracing quotations from the 
ancient authors, and critical collations, they seem little worthy 
of this erudite poet, and were never thought sufficiently im- 

2* 



34 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

portant by Mai, to publish. Perhaps they were of Petrarch's 
youth, when his father snatched from him, and threw into the 
fire, the Virgil he was secretly reading, instead of studying the 
Decretalcs. 

It is impossible to suppress a species of literary emotion, on 
seeing, in a large wooden chest, the celebrated palimpsesti of 
the pleadings of Cicero, for Scaurus, Tullius, and Flaccus, — on 
the writing of which the poems of Leduluis, a priest of the 
sixth century, had been transcribed. In contemplating these 
old black sheets, calcined and perforated in some parts by the 
action of oxygenised muriatic acid, I was pleased to see modern 
science rushing to the rescue of ancient eloquence and philoso- 
phy, and chemistry stripping off and annihilating the ignoble 
text which concealed a sublime original. It was impossible not 
to be struck at the sight of this second species of ruins, and this 
determined searching of the monuments of thought and genius, 
relics of the greatest orator of Rome, found again after more 
than two centuries, under the Gothic lines of a versifier of the 
middle ages and the protocol of ecclesiastical decrees. The 
palimpsesti of the Ambrosian Library proceeded in part from 
the monastery of Saint Columban de Bobbio, situated in the 
recesses of the Appenines, where a mass of precious manu- 
scripts were stored. In those barbarous times the cloister and 
the mountains were the asylum of letters, these learned rem- 
nants published, annoted, translated, by clever and experienced 
-writers and editors of our times, are gloriously promulgated 
throughout the civilized world ; and Cicero, in his eloquent 
orations, is again listened to by a greater number than ever 
heard him in the forum or the comitia. 

But there is a manuscript less imposing than these palimp- 
sesti ; namely, ten letters from Lucretia Borgia to Cardinal 



LOCK OF HAIR. 35 



Bembo, at the end of which is a piece of Spanish verse by the 
latter, breathing an exalted spirit of Platonism ; the answer of 
the lady is much plainer, and she accompanied it with a lock 
of her hair. Thus does the bottom of this mysterious portfolio, 
this strange pedantic medley of poetry, philosophy, and sensua- 
lism, offer a striking characteristic monument of the corruptness 
of Italian manners in the sixteenth century. This lock of a 
lady's hair, in a great library, in the midst of old manuscripts, 
is a striking singularity ; one would scarce have expected to 
find it there, and it seems strange to confide the custody of such 
a charge to the doctors of the Ambrosian library. 

It is particularly difficult to make researches at the Am- 
brosian. Would it be believed that its illustrious founder, 
Cardinal Frederico Borromeo, had forbidden the making of a 
catalogue? It is said that it cannot be done without a dis- 
pensation from Rome. The existing apology for a catalogue 
is truly a mere cypher ; the authors are arranged by their 
Christian names, which, in Italy, have more importance than 
with us ; in the list there is a crowd of Johns, Jameses, and 
Peters, and to find Petrarch, one must look, for Francis. To 
increase the perplexity still more, there is no title on the backs 
of the books ; the aspect of these nameless volumes covering 
the walls of this immense hall, is somewhat intimidating, and 
were it not for the good fame of the founder, one might think 
ill of all this occult science. The librarians, however, know 
pretty well what they have, and what they have not ; they only 
consult their memory, and the catalogue is purely traditional. 

Of the physico-mathematical manuscripts of Leonardo Yinci, 
there only remains now at the Ambrosian a single volume on 
^Engineering, of great size, called the Codice Atlantico, contain- 
ing machines, caricatures and notes collected by Pompeo Leoni. 



36 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

The letters are written from right to left, in the Eastern man- 
ner, and can only be read by a mirror. Like his worthy rival, 
Michael Angelo, Leonardo Yinci was also scholar, sculptor, 
architect, engineer, chemist, mechanician, and man of letters ; 
with such men the multiplicity of accomplishments, instead of 
injuring each other, seem, on the contrary, to extend and 
strengthen them. The sight of this singular manuscript, with 
its reversed characters, proves by its manner, how the influence 
of the East was reflected on Italy in Leonardo's age, and to 
how great an extent Italy was indebted to it for warmth and 
brilliancy. 

There is a small but rich museum in the Ambrosian library, 
in which may be seen the cartoon of the School of Athens, 
the first simple and sublime sketch of that immortal composition. 
M. de Chateaubriand standing before it, said, " I like the car- 
toon as well." The latter having been carefully restored, seems 
to outlast the painting, which is daily falling to decay. A 
portrait of Leonardo Yinci, on red crayon, done by himself, 
is a true patriarchal countenance ; the features are calm and 
mild, notwithstanding the bushiness of the eyebrows, and the 
exuberance of beard and hair. 

Several charming paintings by Bernardino-Luini, such as 
the young St John playing with a lamb, and the Virgin at 
the Rocks, which were brought from Paris, are also at the 
Ambrosian, and the grand fresco of the Crowning with Thorns, 
closes the number of remarkable objects which adorn the walls 
of the Ambrosian library 



IRON CROWN. 37 



EXCURSION TO COSMO. 

THE LAKE OF CO MO. 

Our course as far as Monza by railroad, presented no object 
of interest, except the Iron Crown, which is kept in the rich old 
Lombard basilic of that town. Having met with some opposi- 
tion in our attempt to see this celebrated curiosity, through a 
ruse on the part of the sacristan to extort money, we failed to 
obtain a sight of the real crown, but were satisfied by looking 
at a copy. 

We must, therefore, describe it from a guide book: — "The 
iron crown, the real wonder of Monza, is inclosed in the upper 
part of a large cross, placed in the chapel of the cathedral. 
It is rarely seen but at a certain distance. The iron circle it 
incloses is, as every body knows, made of one of the nails of the 
true cross used in the Passion." From this point the road to 
Como became extremely picturesque, and still more striking on 
a nearer approach to the town itself, where the hilly aspect 
of the country lent relief to our journey. 

The situation of Como on the lake, is one of great beauty, 
and from the windows of our hotel, we caught the first sight of 
its pretty waters. The Casino, one of the most elegant edifices 
in the town, was erected for the convenience of the nobles dur- 
ing the Austrian domination, and is convenient and elegant in 
its arrangements. Having spent some time in walking on the 
terraces of the port's walls, admiring the beauty of the lake, 
and the brilliant display of the constellations above us — a 
brightness of peculiar splendor in Italy, we were accosted by 
the officers on guard, from whom we learned much about the 



38 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

wars of Italy, and their hatred of the Austrian rule. It was not, 
however, until the moon had arisen, that we enjoyed its rich 
effects on the lake before us, and heavy and black shadows 
from the mountains were cast upon its bosom, whilst the numer- 
ous houses and villas of the port were bathed in a flood of light 
resembling hoar frost, and producing the most magical result 
>f a glowing and brilliant chiaro-oscuro. 

On the following morning we again observed the effects of 
sunrise on the Lake, and found it as beautiful as we could have 
expected from the glimpses of the preceding night. 

It would be difficult to describe the variety and the enchant- 
ing localities of the Lake of Como. With its woods, rocks, 
cascades, the mildness of the air, and the olive and citron 
groves that reach down to the banks, it presents an image as 
it were of Switzerland and Italy combined ; Greece even seems 
to be there, and she has given some of her harmonious names 
to sundry places in the environs; for instance, Lenno, Nesso, 
Lecco, Colonnia, Corenno, which naturally remind one of 
Lemnos, jSTaxos, Leucadia, Colona, and Corinth. This number 
of Greek names is a proof of the emigration of the Pelasgians 
into the north of Italy, and the name of Cosmo, too, bespeaks 
of a Greek derivation. The Pelasgians were originally from 
Arcadia, and on the beauteous shores they found the freshness 
and charming solitudes of their native vales. 

In spite of the singular, and perhaps rather cold epithet of 
the great master, (Virgil,) Lari Maxime, the Lake of Como 
does not present, like some others, a great plain of monotonous 
waters; on the contrary, the scene appears to close, re-open, 
and renew itself every instant; its little straits produce the 
effect of a succession of lakes, and the headlands which they 
form, present admirable views of different kinds. I went over 



SILVERY SNOWS. 39 



it several times with infinite pleasure, as well as its environs, 
and I could have wished to have sojourned there longer. It 
would not be very expensive to live in this delightful country; 
at Babbiano, one of the best situations on the Lake, there was 
shown a very pretty house let to an English family for $50. 

At eight o'clock we went on board the little steamer that 
plies its waters, and ran along the shores of this beautiful sheet 
of water. The characteristic of the scenery is a combination of 
harmonious beauties, uniting every variety of scene with the 
greatest contrasts. Pretty villas and regal residence, mingle 
with hamlets and villages. The richest culture of the vegetable 
world follows, and furnishes the rugged sides of the mountains ; 
olive groves and vineyards smile over abrupt and fearful preci- 
pices ; pleasant cliffs are ornamented with towers and castles, 
convents and chalets run out into the lake, breaking up the 
monotony of its surface, whilst every turn exposed new features 
and new views. Every headland appears to limit the extent 
and prospect; they form, as it were, a succession of limited lakes. 
Beyond all are the silvery snows of the Rhetian Alps and the 
the bottom of the lake is superb, where it is shut in by these 
mountains, which witnessed the exploits of Drusus, 

Videre Rboetis sub Alpibus 
Drusus gerentem Vindelici — 

mountains which subsequently gave equal renown to the great 
captains of modern times, from the Duke of Rohan, the deter- 
mined conqueror of the Yalteline, to Macdonald, the vanquisher 
of icy fogs and the Grisons. 

On an agreeable declivity, near the point of Torno, a pretty 
village which rises in the form of an amphitheatre, may be seen 
the ruins of an old monastery of the umiliati; for the borders 



40 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

of the lake are covered with chapels, churches and convents, 
which have a very picturesque effect when viewed from the water. 
Near by was the villa of the celebrated cantatrice Pasta. 

At Bellaggio which may be considered the terminating point 
of the picturesque beauties of the lake, I stopped in order to 
ascend to the Serbelloni villa. 

This position, commanding a full view of the union of the 
Lake Lecco with Lake Como, from the noble terraces in front 
of the mansion, also embraces various rich landscapes on both 
shores. A short row from the landing soon brought me to the 
villa Melzi, remarkable for its garden and fine prospect. The 
gardens are laid out with elegant taste, and the walks embel- 
lished with statues, among them is a beautiful group of Dante 
led by Beatrice, a work by Canova, who also executed Melzi's 
sepulchral monument which stands in the chapel. 

The torrent called Ilfiwine latte, which rushes in foam through 
the rocks, falls into the lake, and gives its name to the village 
situated at its feet, reminded me of the cascade of Pissevache 
near Martigny. A comparison of these popular metaphors, 
intended to produce the same impression, shows all the dif- 
ference between the genius of Italy, and (if we may say so) the 
genius of Switzerland. In this way words may sometimes serve 
to distinguish the character and spirit of nations. 

Near to the branch of Lecco, which has not the varied and 
animated aspect of the Cosmo branch, but is sad and solitary, 
stands Yarena, favored with so genial a climate, that, besides 
its pines, oaks, laurels, cypresses, and numerous olives, the aloe, 
and even the plants of Syria will flourish there. 

On returning to the left, Domaso and Gravedona meet the 
view. On the mountain between these two small towns the 
women wear large gowns of brown woolens, with a hood like 



PLOT DISCLOSED. 41 



that of the Capuchins; these ladies are also called frate (lay 
brothers). They adopt this strange costume in consequence of 
a vow made by their mothers, which they religiously observe. 
But coquetry loses nothing by it ; this humble dress does not 
conceal either their elegant forms or pretty faces ; and among 
the rich, gold, coral, and lace occasionally shine on the robes of 
the good fathers. 

Lower down are discovered the ruins of the stronghold of 
Musso, an ancient fortification hollowed out perpendicularly in 
the rock. Musso was defended with singular audacity by the 
famous Giovanni Iacopo Medici, whose sisters, Clarissa and 
Margaret (the latter the wife of Count Borromeo, and mother 
of Saint Charles), shared his perilous adventures, and stimu- 
lated the women to augment the fortifications. Francesco 
Sforza, after ordering the murder of Ectore Yisanti, wanted to 
get rid of the instruments of that crime, Medici, and another 
captain named Pozzino. The latter was killed ; Medici had 
received orders to repair the castle of Musso ; however, while 
making the passage, he suspected Sforza's intentions, and opened 
the letter thus entrusted to his charge, by which he was con- 
vinced of the fate that awaited him. He immediately replaced 
this letter by another injoining the governor to transfer to him 
provisionally the command of the fort ; and from this rock he 
braved all the attacks of Sforza by land and water, became the 
terror of his race, pillaged all the environs, took possession of 
the Yalteline, and did not consent to make peace until he had 
obtained, besides the payment of 30,000 sequins, the sovereignty 
of Lecco for himself and his descendants, and the possession of 
Meleguano, another fortress between Milan and Lodi, in ex- 
change for the one he occupied. It is painful to behold such 
men stained with crime, as it restricts the admiration their 



42 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

prodigious courage inspires. How great would their glory have 
been, if, instead of being impelled by their own danger and per- 
sonal interest, they had been actuated by patriotism and honor ! 

Cadenabbia and Tremezzine, situated on the same side, in 
the middle of the lake, for position, climate, and their many 
beautiful villas are the Baioe of this little Mediterranean. The 
Sommariva vDla, although of the bad taste of the last century, 
is one of those splendid seats which would not have been dis- 
dained by the luxurious and voluptuous Romans, so severely 
reprehended by Horace. There may be seen an exact copy 
of Jocond, by Leonardo Yinci, and the beautiful basso-relievos 
of Thorwaldsen's Triumph of Alexander, ordered by Napoleon 
for the Quirinal palace 

At the town of Yico, on returning to Como, is the Odaleschi 
villa, the most extensive of the many on the borders of the 
lake, and an abode of almost princely splendor. AH the rich 
wainscotings of this palace are less grateful to the taste than 
the shade of the superb old elm-tree planted at this gate on the 
bank of the lake, with its stone bench, whence one may enjoy 
so delightful a view of Como, the lake, and the mountains. 

One Paolo Grioyio pretended to have built his palace on the 
site of one of Pliny the younger's villas. The Odaleschi is on 
the same spot as the delightful suburbanum of Pliny's modest 
friend, Caninius Rufus, with its gallery where an eternal spring 
prevailed, its impenetrable shade of plane-trees, its canal with 
verdant banks enamelled with flowers, and that lake which 
served as a basin to receive its waters ; for the memory of Pliny 
is predominant over all the shores ; he has bestowed his name 
on one of the steamboats of the lake, and though more than 
seventeen centuries have elapsed, he is still the glory of the 
country. 



IRON CAGES. 43 



I was delighted with Como : its position in a species of valley 
on the banks of the lake, and its towers, render it picturesque. 
The marble cathedral, erected by the people, is a vast and 
beautiful monument of the era of the revival. The town-hall, 
adjoining, of alternate blocks of black and white marble, pre- 
sents a good specimen of the Loggia, or arcades, that are so 
common in Italy. Como has also a superb literary Casino. 
This establishment of an Italian town of fifteen hundred souls, 
is superior to all those of the same kind in Paris. 

On an eminence near the road, is to be seen still standing 
the tower of Baradello, another monument of the intestine 
broils and revolutions of Italy in the middle ages. It is there 
that Napoleon della Torre was shut up in an iron cage until he 
perished, after nineteen months of torment. The cages seem to 
have been very abundant in Italy; the Duke de Nemours and 
Cardinal La Balue underwent it, and Comines confesses that he 
had an eight months' taste of imprisonment. 

BORROMEAN ISLES. 

Before returning to Milan, I visited the Borromean Isles. 
The road thither, by the way of Yarese, displays the richness of 
the cultivated plains of Lombardy; the formation of the land 
being more varied in the vicinity of the mountains which border 
the lakes. The situation of Tarese was very pretty, and the 
town wore an unusually animated appearance, in anticipation of 
the fete of the Corpus Domini, on the morrow. The prospect 
from the Madonna del Monte near this town, is varied, immense 
and magnificent, extending from the chain of the Alps, where 
Mont Hose raises its towering summits, as far as Milan. In 
the vicinity are many pretty villas laid out in Italian style, 



44 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

which contributed somewhat to vary the carriage-drive from 
Yarese to Laveno. 

At Laveno, where I passed the night, I engaged a boat of 
the country, at the usual charge by the Government tariff, to 
take me to the islands on the lake. The aspect of Lake 
Maggiore at early dawn was sublime, and as the sun lighted the 
tops of the mountains, the golden rays gilding their peaks, 
exalted the mind to thoughts of deep emotion. 

The successive stages, steps, terraces, arcades, balustrades, 
and rows of vases and statues, and all the symmetry of the 
Borromean Isles, which would be extravagant anywhere else, 
are not displeasing there, but form a contrast beside the awful 
irregularity of the Alps which enclose and overlook them. The 
gardens, rather built than planted, of Isola Bella, resemble a 
large pyramid of verdure, rising out of the water with half its 
base cut away. Rousseau had some thought of placing the 
action of Julia in these isles, but he rightly judged they con- 
tained too much art and ornament for his characters. Such an 
abode requires the loves of princes, and lovers like La Yalliere, 
or Mademoiselle de Clermont. 

Isola Madre the least artificial of these islands on the bosom 
of the lake, is little frequented, and to this it is indebted for 
that natural simplicity which its neighbor has lost. 

The palace of Isola Bella is magnificent, but not in good 
taste; it was erected in 1671, by Count Italiano Borromeo, 
who transformed this rock into a garden. There are some 
paintings of Chevalier Tempesta, scattered through the apart- 
ments. Being condemned to death for the murder of his first 
wife, in order to marry a person he loved, Tempesta was saved 
by Count Borromeo, who concealed him in his island. These 
paintings are seventy-five in number, for the most part land- 



BATTAGGLIA. 45 



scapes and pastoral scenes; one might say that the painter 
endeavored to forget his crime in contemplating the quietude 
and innocence of the fields. The portraits of Tempesta and his 
second wife, are also there, placed opposite each other; there is 
an expression of cruelty in the beauty of the latter, which makes 
one feel that she was his accomplice. Despite the merit of the 
pictures, one feels a kind of horror in this museum by a single man, 
at the reflection that it is the work of crime and the passions. 

In the garden of Isola Bella, are the two largest laurels in 
Europe. These two laurels seem an emblem of glory. Their 
origin is unknown ; they were planted by nobody ; they existed 
before the present gardens were made, and of themselves had 
taken root in the rocks. It is said that in one of the Italian 
campaigns, Bonaparte, when at Isola Bella, engraved the word 
Battaglia, on the largest of these laurels. 

An Austrian afterwards made a sabre-cut at the tree, as if 
to erase the word; the bark has been taken away by an Eng- 
lishman, and now the glorious strokes, made by the conqueror's 
hand, are scarcely legible. 

Beside the aristocratic and almost princely sumptuousness of 
Isola Bella, are the hard-earned comforts of Isola Pescatore, 
very pleasing to the eye. There every inhabitant has a small 
house, with a boat and net, his small aquatic estate. The 
population of this island is extraordinary, and confirms the 
remark of Montesquieu on the propagation of nations living on 
fish; its circumference is less than half a mile, yet it contains 
over two hundred persons. Its aspect, however, is not unpleas- 
ing; the village steeple, the tiny houses of the fishermen, their 
nets hung in festoons to dry, are grateful to the eye which has 
just been gazing on the monumental pomp of the palace and 
gardens of the Borromean isles. 



46 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 



LAKE MAGGIORE. 

The steamboat which starts from Sesto Calende, and goes to 
Magadino, traverses the whole length of Lake Maggiore. In 
the passage the boat passes over the territory of three different 
States, Lornbardy, Piedmont, and Switzerland. The Gazette of 
Lausanne, and the Courier Suisse, said to be independent papers, 
are read on board the boat. 

This majestic lake offers a double aspect ; on the side of 
Lombardy it is bounded by fertile plains and verdant hills of no 
great elevation, ornamented with new houses ; the towering 
Alps are on the other shore, which is wild and bristles with 
rocks covered with convents, chalets, and old fortifications, in 
the latter portion of which, the Borromean isles, situated in the 
middle of the lake, may be called the limit, rises majestically 
the rock of Caldiero, in the eleventh century the retreat of the 
deacon Arialdus, a martyr to his sermons against simony and 
the concubines of the clergy. Olivia, the mother of Widus, the 
infamous archbishop of Milan, was so carried away by her 
maternal affection, that, assisted by two priests, she assailed 
Arialdus in his hermitage ; they cut off his ears, nose, lips and 
hands, and last of all inflicted a secret mutilation, to which 
these infuriated wretches added the most indecent sarcasm. 
What a strange and horrible history of martyrdom instigated 
by a woman ! Opposite the coast of Canero, which is so mar- 
velously sheltered from storms, are two picturesque forts in 
ruins. In the beginning of the fifteenth century they were the 
resort of five brothers Mazzardini, a species of pirates who 
defended themselves for two years against four hundred men 
of the army of Philip Mariea Yisconti, Duke of Milan ; when 



THUNDER AND CRACKERS. 47 

obliged to surrender through want of provisions, they were all 
thrown into the water with stones tied to their necks. 

What a brilliant pageant must have been presented at the 
fete given on the lake to the King of Sardinia, when he visited 
the Borromean isles, in September, 1828. Painted triumphal 
arches, with the Italian tinsel and customary Latin had been 
erected where his majesty was to pass. The appearance of 
Isola Bella, when illuminated in the evening, presented a most 
extraordinary coup d'ceil. The transparencies and theatrical 
decorations were well suited to an island so symmetrical and 
artificial ; and the roses of Sanquirice seemed more natural 
there than those of spring. The night scene was infinitely 
superior to the pompous harangues and receptions of the morn- 
ing. A multitude of illuminated boats, in the shape of dragons, 
or of temples with Corinthian columns, ornamented with foliage, 
crowded round the blazing island, and the enthusiasm of the 
Milanese for sights of this kind was at its height. Unfortu- 
nately bad weather came on and deranged the fete, and the 
night was one of unceasing tempest ; it might have been said 
that the vast sheets of lightning and the old Alpine thunders 
were indignant at the feux de joie, and the new luminaries that 
disturbed their solitude, and seemed to parody their majesty ; 
the lightning replied to the rockets, and the* thunder to the 
crackers ; and this contrast, which must have annoyed those in 
full dress, added still more to the curious effect of the sight. 

I did content myself with merely viewing from the deck the 
colossus of Saint Charles Borromeo, which stands on the hill of 
Arona. If on shore, I might have been inclined to penetrate 
into the interior of this bulky statue of Saint Charles, and seat- 
ing myself in the long nose of the Saint, as other travelers 
have done, give way to meditations. What an advantage it is 



48 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

to have a position. This colossus of Saint Charles holding the 
book of his synodical constitutions in one hand, and with the 
other giving his blessing, — a statue twenty-one metres and a 
half in height, the head and hands of bronze, the rest wrought 
copper, — a kind of Egyptian monument, erected at the close of 
the seventeenth century visible for miles around is visited by 
everybody, while the churches and paintings of Arona, so in- 
teresting with respect to art, are neglected. 

Sesto Calende on the Ticino, eight leagues from Milan, is the 
entrance of Lombardy. The immense melancholy and mono- 
tonous plain of Lombardy forms a contrast with the lively 
spirited, and almost French ardor of its inhabitants and the 
events of its stormy history. 

Milan with its several public gardens, fine promenades, and 
drives within its wall occupied our time after our return from 
the Lakes. The out-of-door life of Milan is merry, the appear- 
ance of the principal streets striking, and they assume an aspect 
of gaiety and extreme animation in the evening. The Cafes 
were crowded with occupants listening to the execrably poor 
music of hurdy-gurdies and mandolins. Some self-conducting 
velocipedes and pretty good choruses, afforded a variety to the 
usual amusements. 

I did not see ]^a Scala at the season of its splendor. At the 
time of our visit, the house was closed for the summer, and we 
could only learn, that it had accommodations for more than four 
thousand spectators, and the merit of being perfectly resonant, 
notwithstanding its immensity. La Scala is all the society of 
Milan ; and people really know not how to pass the evening 
if there be no performance, for they have not there, as at 
Florence, Rome, and Naples, a corps diplomatique to give 
receptions. Notwithstanding the great fortunes and easy cir- 



BREAD AND THE CIRCUS. 49 

cumstances of the inhabitants, no one thinks himself obliged to 
be at home. The practice of receiving visits at the theatre, so 
injurious to the spirit of society, is not to be eradicated in Italy; 
every lady is a queen in her box, and like Caesar, she will pre- 
fer the first place in that little empire to the second in a draw- 
ing-room. 

ARENA AND ARCO DELLA PACE. 

The Circus, or Arena, intended for races and naumachy, is 
capable of holding nearly forty thousand spectators, and is truly 
an antique monument — this work of the French, and of the 
clever Italian architect Ludovico Canonica, is wanting in Paris. 
Perhaps there is no more worthy ornament of a great city than 
these arenas destined to receive the people, where they may 
sit to be amused by the spectacle of games, in which agility, 
strength, and address bear off the prize. But I think it would 
be requisite to make some changes in the order established 
by Augustus, who had thrown back the women to the farthest 
seats, with the exception of the Vestals, the empress, and ladies 
of the imperial family and of the chief patricians. French 
politeness would never consent to this rude etiquette of the 
Roman emperors. Certainly we do not claim, under Chris- 
tianity, and the ease of our civilization, the partem et circenses 
that the haughty Rome lavished on the people she had con- 
quered. Such coarse pleasures would not suit us; there are 
now other generous illusions to satisfy, and the ennobled race 
of man has a right to something better than such combats. 

The Gate of the Simplon, now the Arco della Pace, at the end 
of the immense Piazza d'armi, is now nearly complete. The 
statue of Peace, as on the arch of the Carousel, succeeds to 

3 



50 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

that of Napoleon; the car is drawn by six bronze horses, a 
greater number than was customary among the ancients; four 
other horses, mounted by figures of Fame, are placed at the 
angles. The figure of Peace and the horses are truly superb, 
and honor the talent of the sculptor S. Sangiorgio, and the skill 
of the founders, the brothers Manfredini, who seem to have 
recovered the method of the ancients. The rich ornaments 
executed under the direction of the clever artist S. Moglia, 
surpass, for taste and effect, those which were previously selec- 
ted. The brilliant basso-relievos, three of which have been 
boldly decided by a traveler to be superior to those of the 
Parthenon, are by Pacetti and SS. Monti of Ravenna, Monti 
of Milan, Acquisti, Pizzi, and Marchesi. One of the basso- 
relievos represents the Emperor Francis entering his capital in 
triumph after Napoleon's fall. The arch of Peace, all dazzling 
with marble and sculpture, is the largest which the moderns 
have conceived. It has cost three millions, and would amount 
to more than double at Paris ; and if it yield in height to the 
Arc de l'Etoile, it is infinitely more magnificent. 

Hot weather and the offence of decayed garbage, rendering 
the street quite pestilential to breathe, we left Milan about the 
last of the month, determined to revisit Como, and to pass 
thence, by the way of Lugano and Arona, on to Turin. 

On the following afternoon, we took the rail cars for Monza, 
and arrived at this time in time to witness the close of the festi- 
val of San Giovanni. Having obtained a wagon at the inn, 
we were enabled to reach the town of Como by two o'clock 
in the morning. 

We again sailed up and down the Lake, and were thus car- 
ried to the extreme end of the lake, at Coleco, where the waters 
are closed by the Rhetian Alps, and the scenery appears grand 



RAINBOW ABOVE. 51 



and sublime. The shores of the lake towards Yico, afford a 
beautiful promenade to the citizens, and from the end of this 
walk you obtain a pretty view of the town, and new features of 
the waters are to be admired. The scenery is for ever varied 
by the perpetual play and changes of light and shade. A heavy 
shower at sunset lent peculiar effect to the scene before us, 
while the rays of the setting sun glanced through the misty air, 
and a graceful and delicate rainbow, bending over the heavens, 
rose so lowly from the outskirts of the town, that it seemed to 
have sprung out of the walls of the noble old tower on the 
banks, and, crowning the summit of a hill, sunk in its repose 
upon the waters of sweet Como. 

The steamer carried us to Menaggio on the succeeding day; 
tlie morning was beautifully clear, and Lake Como looked 
lovelier than ever, for the atmosphere wore an aspect of exceed- 
ing purity. Our view from the hill of Menaggio was one of 
extreme beauty, commanding diverse prospects at every turn of 
the road winding round it. Bellaggio is the prominent point 
on the opposite bank that separates Lake Lecco from Como. 
Our ride to Porlezzo, one of great beauty, passed beside the 
cultivated vineyards of this region, and along side the pretty 
little Lakes of Piano and Bere. At the latter place, having 
learned from experience not to pay over one-fifth of the price 
demanded of foreigners, we had no difficulty in securing a boat 
at a moderate sum, and shortly afterwards we were rowing on 
the waters of Lake Lugano, in active enjoyment of the charac- 
teristic features of this lake, which were wilder and more 
naked than those of Como, it appearing rather like a happy 
introduction to Lake Maggiore, in its pleasant interval be- 
tween the two last; it unites the one with the rugged Alpine 
scenery and sublimity of the other. Lugano, a thriving manu- 



52 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

facturing town with a Swiss population, its frescoes of Luini, 
and situation at the end of the lake, is worthy of a visit from 
all lovers of nature, the arts, and liberty. The sitting of its 
Council give it an unusually animated appearance. 

After dinner we ascended by a circuitous and untrodden path 
through the woods, the ragged sides of Mount San Salvatore, 
and from its top enjoyed a glorious panorama of the entire 
district, a view commanding all the numerous branches of Lake 
Lugano, besides other smaller sheets of water, several villages, 
and a far-off vision of Mount Rosa and other more distant 
chains of the Alps. 

TO TURIN. 

The Diligence from Lugano carried us to Luini on the shores 
of Lake Maggiore. The hill overlooking this town, commands 
a magnificent view over the lake and its encircling mountains. 
At the foot of the declivity we were taken to the steamboat 
which plies daily on the lake, and in a short time were landed 
at Arona, where we were booked for the Diligence going to 
Turin. Inside the coupe we had a most agreeable gentleman, 
a resident native, who accompanied us on our journey, and 
from him we derived much valuable information about the 
country and its products. 

At JSovara, an old dirty Spanish town, we found some rich 
and beautiful churches. The superb basilic of Saint Gauden- 
zio, by the architect Pelegrini, is rich in paintings by the best 
masters of the Milanese school. The two superb doors of the 
inner chapel of the tomb of Saint Gaadenzio are a solid mix- 
ture of cast-steel and bronze : the four great bronze statues 
represent the patrons of the town and diocese of Xovara. The 



cock's crow. 53 



Triumph of Saint Gaudenzio in fresco on the cupola, is full of 
imagination. The tomb of the Saint may be considered one 
of the most splendid and elegant in Italy. The steeple, a 
graceful structure by Count Benedetto Alfieri, finished in 1186, 
was built with the funds proceeding from a tax of a farthing on 
every pound of meat. On each side of the entrance a Roman 
inscription is enchased ; one of them perpetuates the memory 
of a certain Tilianeoreus, who, although questor, owed nothing 
to the Republic, an unusual circumstance, it appears, among the 
Roman questors, since it was thought worthy of being trans- 
mitted to posterity in an epitaph. 

We saw a Last Supper in one of the chapels of the Duomo, 
varied, by Caesar da Sesto, the best pupil of Leonardo di Yinci, 
the friend of Raphael, who delicately said to him : — " Is it not 
strange, that with a friendship like ours we reciprocally show 
each other so little regard in painting, and contend so much 
one against the other ?" 

The old walls of Novaro, which have stood many a siege, 
have been converted into delightful promenades. 

On the road to Turin, we passed through many rich planta- 
tions, and a country abounding with the evidence of a remark- 
able fertility. Mont Rosa appeared constantly in view, and 
lent, with its imagery of beautiful tones of light by sunset, a 
charm to the journey of the traveling party. What occurred 
in the diligence between dusk and darkness, or what places we 
passed during the hours between midnight and dawn, is little 
known to the writer ; but we well remember, that shortly after 
the early cock's crow, and in broad daylight ; an early hour 
before breakfast we had passed through the Gates of Turin. 



54 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 



TURIN. 

To a person returning from Italy, Turin has a cold and 
extraordinary aspect : the streets have a kind of regularity with- 
out magnificence which differs considerably from other Italian 
towns, so that one seems to embrace the entire features of its 
extent and peculiarities by a look through any one of them. 
The medley of Italian manners and martial usages is another 
peculiarity, and the military splendor of the troops, contrasts, 
by its cleanliness, with the dirty tawdryness previously seen. 
In passing along the market-place, one observes that the 
peasants universally adopt low, straw-flats, bound round the 
rim, and trimmed with red velvet, and blue ribbon streamers, 
giving to them a coquettish and picturesque appearance. 

Turin is daily increasing, and its population now exceeds a 
hundred and twenty thousand, including eight thousand work- 
men. The capital of the King of Sardinia seems to have 
grown in proportion with his States, an odd assemblage of 
different peoples and countries — a kind of political chequer- 
work — which, in its diminutive proportion, presents disparities 
of soil and manners not less marked than in the largest empires ; 
which unites the fertile plains of Piedmont, the frozen summits 
of the Alps, the arid mountains and forests of Sardinia, and 
which has blended into one common country the indigent and 
faithful Savoyard, the rich and deceitful Genoese, the intrepid 
native of Piedmont, and the half-African Sardinian. 

Most of the clocks of Turin strike the same hour twice in 
succession, and some even, as the clock of Saint Philip's church, 
repeat, every quarter, the number of the last hour completed. 
The incessant announcement of passing time makes one impa* 



TOCSIN OF LIFE. 55 



tient and even sad ; one's life seems thus to be hastened along 
and clipped into disjointed fragments. The noise of these 
clocks has often brought to my recollection the comic emotion 
of Count X*** de Maistre, in the Expedition nocturne autour 
de ma chambre, when, after hearing it strike twelve three times, 
he exclaimed, stretching out his hand toward the clock : " Yes, 
I know it's twelve, — I know it, I know it but too well." 
Montaigne says, that in his day, the clock of Xuremburg struck 
every minute ; this clock, instead of indicating the time, became 
rather the tocsin of life. 

The gloomy Royal Palace, occupied as the residence of the 
king, is the most prominent object in the centre, and of 
every view of the city. Its former interesting collection of 
paintings was removed in 1832, to the Pinacotheca in the Cas- 
tle (Castello)] and there remains a museum of ancient arms, 
formed by King Charles Albert, near his apartments, which is 
rich, well arranged, and of a superb effect. There is a suit of 
armor that belonged to Henry II., which becomes a kind of 
trophy there ; but instead of being the fruit of conquest in the 
battle of Saint Quentin, as might be supposed, it was fairly 
purchased at Paris. 

Madama Palace, so called after the Duchess of Nemours, 
wife of Charles Emmanuel II., who inhabited it, is now a fine 
Pinacotheca. Above this castle stands the observatory, which 
is under the management of the illustrious Plana ; it was built 
by Victor Emmanuel when he recovered his States, much less, 
it is said, to encourage astronomical observations, than from his 
taste, and perhaps gratitude, for the speculations of astrology, 
to which that prince had devoted his attention in his exile, 
and for the charlatans who had drawn the horoscope of his 
restoration. 



56 



TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 



The fine piazza of Saint Charles has the bronze equestrian 
statue of Emmanuel Philebert, surnamed the Iron-headed, 
Duke of Savoy, and also the four allegorical figures representing 
the county of the Yale of Aosta, the principality of Piedmont, 
the county of Xice, and the duchy of Savoy, which compose 
the monument. This statue was cast at Paris, and the artists 
have, generally, praised its conception, movement, boldness, and 
picturesque effect. 

Valentino, embellished by Christina, queen of Victor Ama- 
deus L, was the pleasant and joyful abode of the worthy 
daughter of Henry IV. and her little court, which Hamilton 
has so well described in the Memoires de Grammont. This 
palace scarcely appears Italian ; one would rather call it a 
great French chateau, with a long avenue, seated on the banks 
of the Seine or Oise ; for the Po, which runs beside it, is rather 
narrow and very tranquil in this part, and this ancient king of 
rivers, long dethroned for ever, is but a mere rivulet of Turin. 

The oldest building here, is the palace ddle Torri, or the 
towers of the city to the north, now a prison ; it is supposed 
to be of the sixth century, and of the Lombard epoch. 

The University of Turin dating from the year 1405 has 
worthily maintained its ancient celebrity ; its lectures are zeal- 
ously followed, and at the entrance of Italy it may be regarded 
as the most brilliant focus of enlightenment in that learned and 
talented country. Several of its professors have ranked in the 
highest walks of European learning and science. 



EGYPTIAN MUSEUM 



This rich collection, the first in Europe, was temporarily 
located in apartments which had not been put in order, and 



soul's treasure remedy. 57 

consequently had more the appearance of a warehouse full of 
antiquities than of a museum. In the court was the stone 
statute of Osymandias, fifteen feet in height, and weighing 
eighteen thousand seven hundred and fifty pounds ; the old 
colossus at Thebes was wrapped up in straw mats like a young 
shrub in the Flower-market. It was on the sacred library of 
the tomb of Osymandias that the inscription, Treasure of re- 
medies for the soul, was formerly written ; I regretted to see the 
magnificent statue of the most ancient amateur of books amidst 
such confusion. The kings of Egypt seem to rank almost with 
the gods. Some other of their statues are admirable ; particu- 
larly the contemporary statue of the great prince Thoutmosis 
II., and the wilfully mutilated one of Amenophis II., the same 
with Memnon, a king whose fame is less derived from his con- 
quest of Ethiopia than from his harmonious colossus. But the 
Apollo of the museum and of Egyptian art is the statue (about 
seven feet high) of Ramses YI. (the great Sesostris) in black 
basalt spotted with white ; he is seated on a throne in military 
costume, and holds a crook-like sceptre in his hand. The phi- 
siognomy is mild and spirited ; the hands are perfect, the forms 
pure, and the feet, which are commonly neglected in Egyptian 
statues, are in just proportion. The beauty of Egyptian sta- 
tuary, which excludes movement and variety of attitude, consists 
in solidity and strength, for it even becomes architecture in 
some vast edifices, of which it forms the front, the peristyle, or 
propyleums. The figures of queens and goddesses in many in- 
stances have a vulture on their heads, because they were re- 
garded as the mothers and nurses of the people : this savage 
bird of prey seems a strange emblem to express such a senti- 
ment, and I regret the pintado or Afra avis for which this 
vulture was for a long time wrongfully taken. 



58 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

The collection of steles or pictures sculptured and painted on 
stone, which are still remarkably bright in coloring, is the most 
complete in existence. A basso-relievo of rose-colored granite 
represents the god Amonra between the goddess Neith and the 
god Phtha, the one God between the creating and preserving 
powers. All these pictures and basso-relievos present scenes of 
worshipping the divinity, of honors rendered to the dead, of judg- 
ment on the soul, etc. ; it is pleasing to find, at so remote an age, 
the sentiments of piety and affection that honor human nature. 

The articles used in the various business of life are numerous 
and most interesting. Among the implements of a lady's toilet 
are two little ivory dogs, one of which still retains the thread 
that was wound on it more than two thousand years ago ; and 
this weak flaxen wreck employed in female labors was des- 
tined to outlive such a succession of powerful empires. I did 
not much like, however, the Egyptian shoes of pasted cloth 
with figures on the sole ; this manner of treading underfoot 
one's enemies or tyrants seems little worthy of so wise and grave 
a nation. These figures in general represent the Pastor kings, 
who, despite their gentle name, were the oppressors of Egypt 
more than two hundred years. The domination of the Pastors 
a people from the North, was to the Egyptian empire what the 
barbarian invasion was to the Roman. Notwithstanding the 
harsh judgment pronounced on the Pastor kings by the new 
Egyptian historical science, one would wish to except King 
Sabbacon, of whom Diodorus relates the admirable story quoted 
by Montesquieu : the god of Thebes appeared to him in a 
vision and ordered him to kill all the priests in Egypt ; he in- 
ferred that the gods were no longer pleased that he should 
reign, as they commanded him to do things so contrary to their 
ordinary will, and he retired into Ethiopia. 



ITCH OF SCRIBBLING. 59 



In the Egyptian museum we also find agricultural implements 
and arms; several models of ploughs ; a yoke for oxen; arrows, 
a helmet, and a fine scimitar of bronze. The occupations of 
husbandry and of war, when found one without the other, an- 
nounce the weakness or barbarism of a people ; but on the 
other hand, if combined, they distinguish the best kind of civi- 
lization. When we observe the immense quantities of mummies, 
it seems that the instinct of preservation was never carried so 
far, for it extends even to beasts, and we also see carefully em- 
balmed ibises, jackals, cynocephali, hawks, fishes, crocodiles, and 
young bulls, marked on the forehead with the characteristic 
sign of the ox Apis ; cats have little sarcophagi to themselves, 
ornamented with paintings which represent them playing. But 
the manuscripts, on papyrus or rolls of cloth, taken from the 
catacombs of Thebes, must be the most instructive and import- 
ant part of this museum : the cacoethes scribendi seems never to 
have raged more widely than among this primitive people, who, 
in that respect, may challenge the most advanced nations. 
There we find the immense funeral ritual, a superbly written 
papyrus more than sixty feet long— a pompous and minute 
ceremonial of death, the most complete that we possess of the 
people who paid the grim tyrant the most fervent and assiduous 
worship ; acts of Pharaoh Amenophis Memnon, ordinances of 
Sesostris, contracts made in the time of the Ptolemeys, the plan 
of Ramses Meiamoun's catacomb, a kind of subterranean palace, 
more extensive than the royal residences of other princes, and 
fragments of a chronological table of above a hundred kings. 
As I contemplated all these dusty and mutilated wrecks of the 
oldest civilized nation of our globe, piled up at the foot of the 
Alps, I said to myself : Perhaps the day will come when our 
own remains, all our monuments of marble and bronze, all the 



60 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

magnificent evidences of our power and glory will be shown in 
the museum of some now savage people, in a desert yet un- 
known, near a lake of which we have never heard, in the bosom 
of impenetrable and gloomy forests or of lofty mountains hardly 
discovered. The Sacys, Akerblads, Youngs, Champollions, 
Seyffarths, and Pfaffs of another world will in their turn write 
dissertations, and obstinately defend their different systems. 
Louis XIV., with his brilliant age and immense works, will be 
as the great Ramses or Sesostris of those distant days ; and 
our recent conquests, so rapid and transient, will be like fable 
after history. 

Many of the views about Turin, commanding the ever tower- 
ing figure of Mont Rosa, are strikingly beautiful and interest- 
ing. * That from the bridge over the Po is peculiarly picturesque 
and pleasing. This bridge is terminated by the noble temple 
del Dio, built in imitation of the Pantheon, at this point grace- 
ful hills covered with pretty and showy villas rise before the- 
vision, wmilst afar off, on the top of a distant mountain, the 
bold outline of the Superga crowns the beauties of this charm- 
ing panorama, and happily terminates the prospect in that 
direction. Above that position and higher up the river a 
graceful iron bridge spans the Po, which has lost here much 
of the grandeur which it sustains in the vicinity of Ferrara. 

I was present at the celebration of the festival of Saint 
Peter, in the latter part of June, a day on which every one is 
absorbed in the ceremony, or procession, and the functions of 
High Mass at the Cathedral. I do not ever remember to have 
seen such a multitude of ugly women as were poured out into 
the streets from the numerous convents of the city; so unfor- 
tunately homely were they, that, it may be remarked, that they 
were not able to make faces more unpleasant than their natural 



BANKS OF THE DORIA. 61 

ones, and a grimace or two might have improved the expression 
of each sister of charity. 

The Cathedral of Saint John has little to boast of, and 
nothing attractive in its architecture. The music performed at 
the fete, was rather of the distracting order, and calculated 
rather to craze the brains of the people than to soften and 
tranquilize their souls. So that with the unfortunate absence 
of beauty, and the turmoil of the Cathedral, the pageant of 
Saint Peter presented a spectacle of mournful interest to the 
beholder. But the rich and picturesque church of San Sudario, 
adjoining the Cathedral and the Royal Palace, is of the con- 
torted architecture of P. Guarini, and presents his ordinary 
mathematical triangles. In this rotundo is preserved, in a silver 
shrine, ornamented with gold and diamonds, and put under 
glass, the sacred winding-sheet that enveloped the body of 
Christ, a sacred relic brought from the East in the time of the 
Crusades by a Frenchman, Geoffroy de Charni, a Knight of 
Champagne, like Thibaut and Joinville. Francis I. invoked it 
before the battle of Marignan, and on his return he went on 
foot from Lyons to Chambery, where the San Sudario then 
was, for the purpose of worshipping it. This relic, which, 
indeed, is not the only one which claims the same honor, (for 
there is a similar in the basilic of Saint Peter's at Rome, and 
two more besides, one at Besangon, the other at Cadouin in 
Perigord,) is for the French at least a national and glorious 
memorial. 

On the afternoon of the last day that we spent at Turin, we 
took a pleasant stroll along the banks of the Doria, in order to 
admire the singularly bold arch which spans the current of its 
wild and impetuously rapid stream, a pathway by the river's 
side leads back to the city, and upon the plankway of another 



62 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

bridge, we rested a long time watching the views of the 
mountains in the back-ground, and the fine effects of sunset 
over the whole extent of the country around us. It was ex- 
cessively hot at Turin, and the noon-day sun sunk on the plain, 
reflecting its force and intensity through the rest of the day. 
It became hotter to the end of our sojourn, and notwithstand- 
ing the views of Mount Cenis, {thought of Caucasus,) and 
thoughts of the Alps, the excessive heat of the weather forced 
us to hurry away toward Genoa. 

ENVIRONS. 

Stupinitz, a hunting palace, the roof of which is picturesquely 
surmounted by a great bronze stag, may be regarded as the 
most splendid edifice of its kind in Europe, and it is one of 
Juvara's principal works. The oval saloon presents a singular 
and well-combined invention ; it corresponds with four apart- 
ments disposed in the form of a cross, for the princes, with 
lateral buildings for the lords in waiting, the officers, and 
hunting-men. Four long avenues proceed from the four glazed 
windows of this saloon, and have a majestic effect. 

The hill of Turin is charming in summer ; it is variegated 
with woods, vineyards, gardens, beautiful palaces, and handsome 
houses ; there are not, indeed, many good roads, but a mul- 
titude of shady and retired footpaths. I saw the rising sun 
from these heights, and the effect was superb, though the 
horizon was dimmed by vapors : Mount Viso, and the whole 
chain of the Alps, were tinted of a rosy hue by his first rays, 
and appeared in the distance like immense brilliant pyramids. 

The Superga temple, which is said to be so called from its 
position on the ridge of these mountains, super terga montium, 



SUPERGA TEMPLE. 63 



crowns this beauteous hill. It was built in 1106, by King 
Victor Amadeus I., in pursuance of a vow he had made to the 
Virgin, if the attack he concerted on that very spot with Prince 
Eugene should compel the French to raise the siege of Turin. 
This church and its monastary, of a fine architectural disposi- 
tion, despite its impurities, pass for the best and most ingenious 
of Juvara's constructions. The Superga church is the burial 
place of the sovereigns of Piedmont, but the modern vaults 
of this Savoyard Saint Denis, all lined with white, yellow, 
and green marble, and light as day, seemed to me devoid of 
majesty and sadness ; the fantastic ornaments of the architec- 
ture, notwithstanding the richness of its materials, are unsuited 
to the tombs of kings, and the stone arches, the caverns 
blackened by ages of the old basilics, are far more fitting for 
the sanctuaries of death. In a separate vault are the remains 
of the children and princes of the royal family that never 
ascended the throne : the first lived but a few days in inno- 
cence ; the second may have been honored as benefactors ; 
both seemed to me happy in having escaped the throne. This 
little throne of Savoy is, moreover, the one that numbers most 
abdications. One would say that these kings of the Alps, the 
sovereigns of ice and rock, whose dominions are nearest the 
heavens, take disgust at the earth more easily than others. In 
the apartment intended for the king is a complete collection of 
portraits of the popes, two hundred and fifty-three in number, 
from Saint Peter to the present possessor of his chair. When 
we reflect on the fact that the first thirty of these pontiffs were 
all martyrs, it is impossible not to admire and respect this new 
courage, unique in history, and this same and intrepid sacrifice 
to the same truth. If, while contemplating the portraits of 
the succeeding popes, I sometimes fell on unworthy portions of 



64 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

this great history, the general impression was not destroyed, 
and instead of all the phantoms of human power, the exhibi- 
tion of material and physical strength that pursues you in 
the other galleries, I loved to contemplate all these laborious 
helmsmen of Saint Peter's bark, the eternal representatives of 
the greatest moral power that ever acted on the world. 

TURIN TO GENOA. 

On the royal road to Genoa, I observed that the entire 
route of the highway was sprinkled to allay the dust. The 
plan adopted to perform this work, was by digging a small 
channel at the side of the road, and letting into this water 
from various sources by the wayside ; now the water was thrown 
over the middle of the road by men who shoveled it out with 
long wooden ladles. The cheapness of labor in this country 
enables this to be done without greatly taxing the people. 

Darkness overtook us shortly after reaching Piorino, causing 
us to regret that we could not visit the vineyards of Asti, 
which produce annually about 4,000,000 gallons of the best 
wines in Piedmont, and, when they become old, will bear com- 
parison with the strongest of old Spain. 

In the morning we arrived at Alexandria. Notwithstanding 
its extent, the beauty of its name, and its twenty thousand 
inhabitants, it seemed rather a vulgar place, and, but for the 
citadel, of itself a town, and strictly forbidden to strangers, we 
should have been at a loss for a superb aspect. Towards noon 
we went over the field of Marengo. There was nothing to be 
seen but a few scattered fragments on that scene of the cele- 
brated battle throughout the still and deserted plain. What 
has become of so many heroic men ? If contemplating their 



ALPINE TORNADO. 65 



features in the portraiture of the able Isabey, you seek an 
answer to the question, death alone will give the clue. The 
column erected on the spot where Desaix was killed is not 
there now. It is said that a lady, living in the neighborhood, 
who was an admirer of his life, had it buried on .the spot 
where it used to stand, that it might not be destroyed. There 
is something touching in these honors of sepulchre conferred on 
a monument of French valor by a foreign lady. This new 
column is already inhumed, like a time-worn monument of 
Athens or Rome, and it is associated with deeds no less 
glorious. The present proprietor of this spot has erected an 
auierge on the plain, after the plan of the castle at Saint 
Helena, and on a spot of ground before this house, a statue has 
been erected to the hero, — Napoleon. 

At about three posts further we struck the Appenines where 
Novi, sheltered by a mountain, holds its picturesque position, 
and invokes your memories in this plain, where perished the bril- 
liant Joubert, one of those young conquerors of the first wars of 
Italy, being surprised at daybreak by the impetuous Suwarrow. 

Just upon entering the valley of the Appenines a furious 
gale commenced blowing, the force of which was almost strong 
enough to stop the speed of the horses. These winds, peculiar 
to this region, which are drawn through the funnels of the 
mountains of the frontiers, are borne with a violence of irresist- 
able impetuosity, and are sometimes powerful enough to over- 
turn the diligence. 

Upon reaching the summit of a steep ascent, a fine view of 
the first spur of the Appenines presented itself ; the circuitous 
windings of the mountain-road was now and then occasionally 
seen peeping behind the hills, and again stretching its course 
for miles along the valley. Here also, we crossed the line of 



66 TRACES OF THE ROMAK AND MOOR. 

the projected railroad to Geneva, which will require some of 
the heaviest tunneling iii Europe, one of the five contemplated 
having already been begun. On a nearer approach to our 
destination, the hills sundered wide apart on each side of a 
rugged and desolated torrent-course, and the declivities on each 
side soon commenced to be covered with pretty houses and 
villas, clearly indicating the proximity of a large city. It is not 
until one passes into the quarter of Saint Peter d' Arena — ■ 
" itself a fauxbourg of splendid palaces and gardens" — that one 
catches a sight of the delightful amphitheatre of hills, at whose 
base lies Genoa with its forts, fortresses and towers, shipping, 
palaces, and active commercial life. 



GENOA. 

The aspect of Genoa, with its port, its palaces, its terraces, 
its balconies of white marble planted with orange trees, a realiza- 
tion of hanging gardens, and the ramparts that crown its vast 
amphitheatre, is truly superb, and earns for it the well-known 
title of La Superba. This city has only three streets, and it is 
one of the finest in the world. It is indeed la reak, la nobil 
citta, so poetically sung by Tasso, and said by Madame de 
Stael, to have been built for a congress of kings. 

The port of Genoa seems always busy, and whilst Yenice is 
losing her population daily and falling into decay, her old rival, 
the residence of the court some months of the year, appears 
flourishing. The diligence, and skill, and courage of the sailors 
of the Gulf of Genoa, assueto que malo Ligwrem, who are about 
thirty thousand in number, are extraordinary. Their tartans, 
small crafts about the size of a room, on which they sail, reach 



DARING SAILORS. 67 



even the ports of the ocean; and in the month of October, 
1822, a Genoese vessel had arrived from Peru, after a passage 
of ninety-three days. This enterprising and laborious race of 
men, interesting for their manners, frugality, and thrift, strik- 
ingly contrast with the inhabitants of most other countries in 
Italy, and they seem to have preserved something of the navi- 
gating instinct peculiar to the Italians of the fifteenth century. 

A strange hereditary aristocracy, that one would hardly 
expect to find there, is displayed in the service of Porto Franco, 
a kind of small sea town, always exclusively reserved to Ber- 
gamese porters, all others being rigorously excluded. They 
seem, however, worthy of their privilege, as they have a repu- 
tation for dexterity and uprightness which has endured for five 
centuries, and their company, known under the Arabic name of 
caravaiia, dates from the year 1340, and was instituted by 
Saint George's Bank. 

The great hall of Saint George, over the custom house of 
happy proportions, and with a fir tree roof, as usual in that 
country, is ornamented with the dusty and neglected statues of 
its founders. Saint George's Bank, a political, fiscal, and com- 
mercial institution, which owned the island of Corsica, Sarzana, 
and some other towns on the eastern and western coast, was 
like the East India Company of the middle ages. Its history 
was almost that of Genoa. An ancient marble group shows 
the proud power of the Genoese; it represents the griffin 
holding in his claws an eagle, the emblem of the Emperor 
Frederick, and a fox, the Pisan arms, with this inscription: 



'■' Gryphus lit lias angit 
Sic hostes Genua frangit/ 



"o J 



Over the principal door of the custom house, are suspended 



68 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

some links of an iron chain which was used to close the ports 
of Pisa, but was borne off in triumph by the Genoese in 1290. 

The gate of the Old Mole, an imposing and solid fortification 
by Geleasa Alessi, has on the side toward the sea, the follow- 
ing fine inscription by Bonfadio : 



EXTRUCTAQ. PORTA 

PROPUGNACULO MUNITA 

URBEM CINGEBANT MCENIBUS 

QUACUMQ, ALLUITUR MARI. 

ANNO afDLIII. 

The Loggia de Banchi, is a skillful and economical structure, 
by Alessi, which, for the boldness of the roof, consisting simply 
of ship masts, the Genoese call un let azzardo, as if such 
hazards did not commonly befall men of genius. 

PALACES. 

If Genoa may be well termed the Superba, it derives its 
chief attraction from the number and beauty of its Palaces in 
the Strada Nuova. 

The Spinola (Maximilian) Palace, is distinguished among 
them by the happy proportion of the porticos in the court, the 
originality of its cloister, arched roofs, and the room on the first 
floor painted in fresco, at eighteen years of age, by Luca 
Cambiaso, a clever and precocious Genoese artist of the six- 
teenth century, of a bold and prolific genius, who worked with 
two pencils at once, but whose good period only lasted a dozen 
years. 



JEALOUSY OF ARTISTS. 69 



Indifferent with respect to art and badly built, the Serra 
Palace is only noted for its saloon on the first floor, which was 
highly praised during the last century, and surnamed the 
Palace of the Sun, by the President Dupuy; but its decoration, 
in which there is truly an excess of mirrors, is rather distin- 
guished by richness than taste. It is said that a million of 
francs were expended upon this toy, a monument of ostentation 
and luxury, rather than true magnificence. The terrace, over- 
looking the sea, commands an extensive prospect over the 
town. 

The Brignole (Rosso) Palace has some great porticos of fine 
proportions, and the gallery is one of the first in Genoa. Its 
rooms, although well distributed, and in bad taste with exces- 
sive frescoing of the ceilings, contain many excellent paintings, 
among which I especially remember certain works by Pellegro 
Piola, a Genoese painter of great promise, who was waylaid 
and assassinated in his twenty-third year, by his rivals, jealous 
of the popularity of his Madonna, which is still exposed in 
Goldsmith's street, another victim to the violent professional 
enmities of that age, and akin to the Artist's hatred, mentioned 
by Yalery, while speaking of some frescoes of the ceiling in the 
Chapel of the Treasury of the Cathedral at Naples. He there 
says, " The superb frescoes of the ceilings, the corners, and 
lunettes, are also by Domenichino; but for the persecutions he 
experienced from his rivals he would have painted the cupola, 
at which Lanfranco refused to work unless the part begun by 
his great predecessor was effaced. Guido was also to have 
been employed at this chapel, and had repaired to Naples, 
whence he was forced to depart suddenly in consequence of the 
threats of Spagnoletto, and the Greek, Belesario Corenzio, 
then a true despot over the arts in this country, who had tried 



10 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

to poison him. The Cav. d'Arpino, was likewise menaced by 
him, and took flight. Gessi, a pupil of Guido, not deterred by 
his master's adventure, also came to Naples with two of his own 
disciples to replace him; but the latter being enticed on board 
a galley, under pretence of seeing it, the anchor was* raised, and 
their disconsolate master could never discover what became of 
them. When we see Titian at work with a knife by his side, 
Giorgione arm himself with a cuirass while painting in public ; 
Masaccio, Perozzi, Barroccio, die of poison; and when we 
remember the tragic fate of a multitude of other painters, the 
hatred and passions of artists appear, especially in Italy, more 
violent and irritable than the self-love of literary men." 

Whilst passing along the Strada Balbi, curiosity led me to 
visit the magnificent Durazzo palace, now the King's, which has 
two grand white marble staircases to the right and left of the 
vestibule by Carlo Fontana, and is the only one in Genoa, in; 
which carriages can enter and turn with facility, for sedan- 
chairs only were used in this capital in former times. The first 
masterpieces of the pictorial art decorate this and other palaces 
in Genoa, a rich and mercantile city, a formidable place of 
war which is not perhaps duly appreciated for its works of art. 

The royal palace of Andrea Doria, of the architecture of Fra 
Montorsoli, who was summoned from Rome to build it, has 
a long characteristic inscription of a single line under the en- 
tablature of the windows, which states that its illustrious 
founder had been admiral of the Pope, of Charles V., Francis 
I., and of his own country, an extraordinary man, whose alliance 
was sought by the greatest princes, who had defeated the 
Moors and Turks with his own galleys, and was himself almost 
a power. 

The poor statue of the old admiral, as Neptune, stands in the 



DOG OF DORIA. *ll 



middle of the garden near the shore ; but his romantic mous- 
tache of the fifteenth century, contrasts strangely with the 
nakedness and classical attributes of the marine deitv. The 
door is from the designs of Perino del Yaga, a pupil of Raphael, 
who, having escaped the sack of Rome with loss of his all, was 
generously welcomed by Doria, decorated this palace with his 
finest paintings. Such are the stuccos and grotesques of the 
vestibule, resembling the Loggia, at which Perino del Yaga, had 
worked ; some little children, Horatius Codes, Mutius Seas vola, 
and three other subjects of Roman history, worthy of Raphael 
for invention and composition, and the ceiling of the War of the 
Giants, almost equalling the frescos of the Farnesina. The 
trellis, opposite and above the palace, with the porticos and 
colonnaded porches running out toward the sea command 
various views of the picturesque points of Genoa, and fresh 
glimpses over the forests of the harbor, between the Old and 
New Moles. The grounds and fountains are now neglected 
like the rest of this superb abode. The mausoleum of Roedan, 
the dog given by Charles Y. to Andrea Doria, is almost buried. 
It was placed at the foot of the colossal statue of Jupiter, that 
the great Roedan, as the whimsical epitaph stated, might not 
cease to guard a prince, even after his death. Doria again 
returned in triumph to his country, and his dog, so magnifi- 
cently interred, cannot have the merit of that of Ulysses, which 
a French poet has happily painted in four words — 

" Ai-je encor des amis 

Un seul m'^tait reste, non parmi l.es humains." 

Not far from Jupiter is the grotto, from the designs of 
Galeaso Alessi, a brilliant construction of white marble, form- 



72 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

ing a terrace, which so admirably finishes the garden and over- 
looks the sea. 

At the top of the garden of the Scoglietto, a villa of ordi- 
nary architecture, but a quiet and cheerful retreat from the 
heats of the city, it is singularly agreeable to observe its ter- 
races, grottos, cascades, its orange, lemon, and pomegranate 
groves, its pine woods, and especially its site above the sea. 

It was no less interesting to ascend to the lighthouse, called 
the Lantern, at Genoa, a picturesque structure, reared on a 
lofty rock which served for its base ; and then to behold the 
magnificent horizon thence discovered. 

Whilst visiting the various palaces of Genoa, during the 
hours which had been appointed for the admission of strangers, 
by their respective owners, there was none that so largely 
claimed our attention as the Pallavicini, with its judicious and 
elegant architecture, position, and charming grotto; rendering 
it one of the most remarkable in Genoa. It is pretended that 
Cromwell once inhabited it, but nothing can be more uncertain 
than this tradition. 

Still, on walking through the Balbi Strada, what an enchant- 
ing effect was produced by the porticos of its splendid palace, 
(the Povera,) so remarkable for their proportions, and the rich- 
ness of its nympheum, which terminates in a large garden of 
oranges planted in the soil. The palace itself is in excellent style, 
and the rooms being ornamented with paintings of great merit, 
all the decorations consisting of blue and gold enamel. The 
courtesy by which we were permitted to enter during the actual 
occupation of the family, did not fail to contribute to the 
pleasure of our interview. 

I visited the charming picturesque retreat of the Marquis 
Giovanni Carlo di Negro, a perfect model of that courtesy and 



A CLEVER MARQUIS. ' 73 



Italian good feeling towards strangers, which can never be 
sufficiently praised. He has expended a large fortune in adorn- 
ing the grounds with terraces and labyrinthine walks, having 
husbanded the small surface of the soil on this place with such 
economy, that every inch is cultivated with as much beauty and 
advantage as the nature of the land permits. From these 
hanging gardens you obtain extensive and glorious views over 
the harbor and the sea, and from other points of these parapets 
of rock, rich prospects are to be had towards the inland, embrac- 
ing the swelling hillocks of the interior, and displaying their 
sides covered with many pretty villas ; the prospect reminding 
one somewhat of the vicinity of Florence. The garden of the 
Marquis, visited by the Pope, the Emperor of Austria, the 
Kings of Sardinia and Naples, was worthy of these honors, 
less from its wonderful situation, its library, its exotic plants, 
than the talents and urbane character of its amiable possessor, 
who, besides being a passionate lover of the fine arts, was a 
distinguished improvisatore and author. Among the many 
charming features that claim for Genoa its title of the Superb 
City, there are none so likely to be remembered by strangers 
as the beautiful promenades which they have always delighted 
to frequent at evening. These public walks form a peculiar 
attraction in almost every seaport of note on the Continent, 
and under whatever name they may be found, whether of 
Alemeda, Paseo, Corse, rampart, fortification, or sea-girt walls, 
they will be first discovered and most eagerly sought after 
by the wanderer, in order to refresh his mind with these scenes 
of life and gaiety with which they abound. 

That grand street of palaces, the Strada Nuova, furnishes 
a noon-day promenade. This, on Sunday, is crowded with 
passengers on the way to the cooler retreats of the terraces. 

4 



14 « TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

The Acqua verde, and Acqua sola, the most beautiful of these 
walks, commanding not only a view of the city's outline, but 
holding in embrace that extensive and magnificent panorama of 
sea, sky, inland, port, harbor, shipping and active life at sun- 
set, so justly the boast of her citizens, have within their reach 
the distant isles of the Mediterranean and the bold forms of the 
descending Appenines. There is a charm in both that wins 
the soul at evening, when their paths are trodden by the feet of 
the Genoese beauties ; for pretty women and smiling landscapes 
never yet failed to sooth the heart of the rover in distant lands, 
especially at the evening stroll, when the setting sun paints the 
scenery with its splendor, and the rosy fingers of its gorgeous 
rays pencil the sky and sea with the last faint blushes of 
quivering light. 

But the ladies, or the women, we must repeat it, are the 
chief objects of attraction in these gardens. The beautiful girls 
of Genoa, and the roguishly eyed Genoese, enchant the be- 
holder, especially on Sundays, when all the town is out in pro- 
menade, either upon the circuit of the fortifications, or the 
other fine terraces of the city. How bewitching are those 
piercing glances darting from bright eyes, that peep out under 
the light folds of their gossamer white veils, so faintly conceal- 
ing their snowy skins, and softening the lustre of their raven 
locks. All the Italian ladies have a peculiar faculty in dress- 
ing their hair, but the Genoese have attained to perfection in 
the art. The head is combed with the same order before the 
ears, as with us, and brought behind so as to lie in plaits or 
hang in graceful loops in pendants, which are kept up by an 
elegant tortoise-shell comb ; a thin muslin gauze or lace veil 
falls from the embrace of heavy golden pins, covering their 
necks only to enhance their charm, while it flows in graceful 



BEAUTIES BRIDGE. 75 



folds over the form of their bare arms, and dropping from the 
head somewhat after the style of the mantilla, seems to dally 
with the winds as wantonly as these fair owners with their 
favors. This pretty costume, w T ith the added gracefulness of 
their noble gaits, render the Genoese beauties exceedingly 
attractive, and excite in the spectator all these sentiments of 
admiration and surprise that can be embraced between the 
sight of gracefully poised heads, pretty faces, bewitching glances, 
and figures of peerless grace. Truly, ye fair ones of the even- 
ing's walk, ye did often cause me to forget my first love ! 

A STROLL. 

On one occasion after a visit to the Pallaverini Palace, we 
entered into the Church of Saint Stephen, in order to see the 
Martyrdom of the Saint, a celebrated painting given to this 
Church by Leo X. and the Cardinal Giulio de Medici, which is 
one of the finest and most remarkable chefs d'ceuvre of Italy. 
The lower part by Giulio Romano, may be regarded as his best 
work in oil; the upper part is by Raphael. It had suffered so 
much from time and its removal from Paris, that the brilliancy 
of the coloring was almost obscured, and were it not for the 
excellent drawing of the figures, and the beauty of the drapery 
of the Saviour in the upper part, it would be difficult to recog- 
nize the hand of its master. 

By continuing our walk, we reached the noble structure of 
the bridge of Carignano, a bold construction joining the two 
hills, with houses seven stories high beneath it, built by the 
Sauli family, ancient patricians of Genoa, who were devoted to 
the public welfare and convenience. Few cities present so varied 
and animated an aspect as that obtained from this point; the 



16 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

peculiar construction of the houses, and their colors and shapes, 
added their charms to this fascinating spot ; and while these 
harmoniously blended with the verdure and outlines of the hills 
in our rear, they happily combined to increase the beauty and 
loveliness of the scene in our front, wherein the soft sky of this 
climate was in perfect union and keeping with the purer blue 
of the sea. 

The smiling hill of Albaro, covered with superb villas, formed 
a fit close to our delightful sojourn in this city; and, with the 
Saluzzi Palace, brought to our mind the residence of Lord 
Byron at the Paradiso. This palace he inhabited ; he departed 
thence for Greece, but returned a moment, when, becalmed a 
whole day, within sight of Genoa, and he had there a presenti- 
ment of his approaching glorious end. Having expressed a 
wish to see this palace once more, he went thither, accompanied 
by Count Gamba alone. " His conversation," says the latter, 
" took a melancholy turn ; he spoke much of his past life and 
the uncertainty of the future. " Where shall we be," said he, 
" a year hence ?" " It was like a gloomy prophecy," adds his 
friend ; " for the year after, on the same day of the same 
month, he was laid in the tomb of his ancestors." 

I happened to be in Genoa, at the anniversary of the day 
of our national independence, and it was with feelings of 
satisfaction and pride that I attended a dinner, given by the 
American captains of the port, which claims the honor of 
having given birth to Columbus. I was pleased to have met 
there so creditable a representation of those seamen to whom 
our commercial interests have been so happily intrusted ; and 
glory in the acknowledgment of the fact, that our navigators 
will bear an honorable comparison with the captains of any 
nation in the world; in fact, it may be safely said, that in 



COLUMBUS OUR FIRST SAILOR. 1? 

their gentlemanly deportment, correct conduct and maritime 
skill they excel over all others that I met abroad. At this 
celebration no excess was indulged in, nor vulgarity of manner 
or conversation exhibited. The time was pleasantly and in- 
structively passed in discussion of our national politics and 
policy, and a sociability and courtesy enjoyed, which carried with 
them the firm conviction, that the honor of the American flag 
had not been unwisely committed to these honest tars. The 
first of the Americans was a sailor — one Christoforo Colombo. 

On the last afternoon that I spent in the city I ascended 
the hills, back of the town, and walked, while enjoying the 
many magnificent views obtained at successive heights in my 
progress, until I reached a long piece of the aqueduct that 
brings the water from a distance of six leagues into the different 
parts of the city, and even to the upper stories of every house ; 
and thence resumed my walk until I arrived at the uppermost 
fort in the line of the fortifications, — the limit of the finest 
promenade in Italy, whence two distinct and superb vistas were 
leisurely and delightfully enjoyed, over the city, the harbor, 
and the sea. Descending by a different pathway, cut mostly 
oat of the rocky side of the mountain, I passed down into the 
valley, aad was soon lost in the shades of a deep ravine, over- 
hung with the forests that surround the walls of the Alhergo de 
foveri, one of the most extensive hospitals in Italy, having 
accommodations for two thousand and two hundred inmates. 

Probably no other city possesses so many or such luxurious 
abodes for misery and affliction. The luxury of the arts has 
been introduced into these asylums of wretchedness and toil, 
imparting to them a kind of dignity. The statues of the dif- 
ferent benefactors represent them seated or standing, according 
to the amount of their donations. 



78 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

The superb staircase and porticos of the court of the hospital 
de Pammatone, are built with marble of a dazzling whiteness ; 
never had bodily pain a more magnificent dwelling, and moral 
suffering is not better lodged in palaces. As, at the Albergo, 
charity has its ceremonial and etiquette; the donors of 1000 
livres have an inscription ; those of 2000 livres a bust ; 4000 
livres are required for a statue. 

Near this asylum for the afflictions of the people exists a 
monument of its courage. A marble slab, with an inscription, 
marks the spot where, on the 5th of December, 1746, the 
Austrians attempted to compel the people of Genoa by blows 
to raise one of their mortars, which had broken through into 
a drain as it was passing along the street. A stone, thrown 
by a child eight years of age, the son of a shoemaker, who was 
incensed at seeing his father beaten, was the signal for that 
noble insurrection, which soon became general. Overwhelmed 
by the stones with which they were assailed, the German 
soldiers were driven from the town, and their generals con- 
sented to negotiate. The doge, the senate, and nobility, who 
had, at first, assayed to suppress the insurrection, then came to 
the aid of the victorious people, who had made themselves mas- 
ters of the arsenals and ramparts ; troops and money were sent 
from France ; and the Republic of Genoa, honorably included 
in the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, recovered its ancient limits. 

The conservatory of the Fiesckim, a convent, and house of 
industry, founded by one Dominican Fieschi, celebrated for its 
artificial flowers, which are sold in all parts of Europe, presents 
a piquant contrast; poor and holy maidens bedeck with their 
garlands the world they have quitted, and these brilliant but 
very dear flowers are offered you for sale through the double 
grating of a parlor, by a Flora in wimple and biggin. 



THE OCEAN ROAD. ^9 



Thus having seen all that was interesting in this vicinity, 
we closed the evening of our last day at Genoa, a city of 
palaces, and magnificent charities, not only luxuriously great, but 
beautifully and brilliantly good with all its charms of earthly 
loveliness, its aspects and prospects, by ' sea and land, the 
meeting of its processions, the songs of the people, the lively 
ancT spirited expression of the countenances, the glaring colors 
of the dresses worn by the women, the solidity and size of the 
buildings ; in fact, wdiere everything combines to inform us that 
we are in Italy, and in Gefioa, the proud City! The. magic of 
these names deepens the impression on the senses. "Italy!" I 
repeat involuntarily, "and Genoa! this, then, is Italy! and 
this is Genoa la Superba. 



LA III TIER A. 

TO NICE. 

The road from Genoa to Nice is by the way of the celebrated 
Riviera following the coast, and is unsurpassed by any other 
in Europe in the beauty of its landscapes, or the richness 
and variety of the cultivation, w r hich decks the marginal of the 
land side. 

You ride always in sight of the ocean, now ascending to 
elevated points by the wayside, whence you look out over an 
immense expanse of land and water; now crossing valleys, 
fording mountain streams, or skirting rich plantations, and 
passing through many picturesque valla ges, you then run among 
the vineyards and olive groves, whilst your course is scented 
with the rich perfumes of the citron and orange trees. 

Starting from San Pier d' Arena, perhaps the most magnifi- 



80 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

cent of all suburbs, the beautiful Villa Imperiale ; by Galeaso 
Alessi — now belonging to a learned Genoese physician, Scassi 
— is remarkable for its scientific plan, its well-proportioned 
elevations, and its extensive gardens ornamented with grottoes, 
ramps, sheets of water, and charming fountains. The richness 
of the villas in the vicinity of Genoa, is not surprising, as they 
were formerly the theatres of the splendid fetes, that the sump- 
tuary laws of the republic did not suffer in the town; it was in 
the country then that diamonds were worn. 

Having crossed over the bridge of Cornigliano, the spot, 
where, after sixty days' resistance, after doing all the physical 
or moral powers of man could achieve, Massena signed his 
honorable capitulation, we passed by several delightful villas, 
and many beautiful towns. Among these, Cogoleto will not 
give up the honor of having given birth to Columbus. Not- 
withstanding the multitude of researches and dissertations it is 
now pretty certain that Columbus was a native of Genoa, 
according to the sublime and affecting passage from the will 
of the great man : Que siendo yo nacido en Genova . . como 
natural de ella, porque de ella y en ella naci, a declaration that 
ought to be conclusive. 

The pretensions of Cogoleto appeared for a time well 
founded, from the fact, that two admirals named Colombo, and 
natives of that place, sailed with Columbus. They even pre- 
tend to know his house, a kind of hut on the sea-shore which I 
found very fitly occupied by a coast guard ; on it may be read, 
after a multitude of miserable inscriptions, this fine verse, an 
impromptu by Gaglium : 

" Unus erat mundus : duo sint, ait iste ; fuere." 
In the town-house, is an antique portrait of Columbus, but it 



WET THE ROPES. 81 



can hardly be a likeness, or this intrepid, eloquent, enlightened, 
and inspired man had a very ordinary appearance. The situa- 
tion of Cogoleto on "the sea-shore, was very picturesque, while 
the ruins of an old castle surrounded by a thicket of cactus, in 
the foreground, with the background of low hills sloping 
towards the water's edge, lend it an aspect of exquisite beauty. 

The whole road beyond, continued with heightened and in- 
creased interest. Tall steeples, and quaint old watch towers, 
ornamented the bold line of the coast ; and, occasionally, palms 
with fig trees, united to lend an oriental feature to the scenery, 
whilst oleanders and acanthas varied by clumps of prickly- 
pear shrubs fringed the road-side before we arrived at Sarona. 
The people along shore seemed to be industrious, happy and 
contented ; their occupation was that of ship-building, and 
manufacturing of paper and other articles. 

Savona, a very ancient town, agreeably situated, but rather 
deserted, has the finest fort on this coast, which stands on a 
rock close by the sea, it was the last village reached before 
dark. From this point we journeyed during the night as far 
as the town of San Remo. 

This wealthy town, ornamented with gardens and fine build- 
ings, is more particularly remarkable for the palm trees of the 
hermitage of Saint Romulus which crowns its heights, and dis- 
plays their oriental pomp, beside an abundant Italian vegetation 
of orange, citron, and olive trees. The Bresca family still en- 
joys the just privilege granted by Sixtus V., of supplying the 
churches of Rome With palms on Palm Sunday. This privilege 
is said to have originated in the following manner, though I 
find no trace of the anecdote in the best informed contemporary 
historians; it is, however, in some measure supported by the 
frescos in the chamber of the Vatican Library : — When Fon- 



82 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

tana was preparing to raise the obelisk of Saint Peter's by the 
machinery he had invented for that purpose, he required the 
most profound silence, that his orders might be distinctly heard. 
The inflexible Sixtus published an edict to the effect that the 
first bystander that shouted should be instantly put to death, 
whatever might be his rank or condition. At the moment 
when the ropes, as if by magic, had raised the enormous mass 
almost high enough to place it on the pedestal, when the Pope 
was encouraging the workmen by approving nods, and Fontana, 
who alone spoke, was ordering a last and decisive effort, a man 
suddenly exclaimed with a stentorian voice : Acqua alle corde! 
(wet the ropes,) and advanced from the crowd to deliver him- 
self up to the executioner and his satellites, who stood near a 
gallows erected on the piazza. Fontana attentively observed 
the ropes, and seeing that they were on the point of breaking 
from extreme tension, ordered them to be instantly wetted ; 
they were immediately contracted and the obelisk settled on the 
pedestal amid universal plaudits. Fontana ran to the man 
whose advice had been so opportune, embraced him, and pre- 
senting him to the Pope, asked and obtained an instant pardon. 
Bresca was further rewarded with a considerable pension, and 
this hereditary privilege of supplying Rome with palms. Ever 
since the Easter festival of 1587, a ship has annually sailed 
with this sacred cargo, and Providence seems to have blessed 
it beforehand, for of these two hundred and sixty-five vessels, 
not one has suffered a shipwreck. 

Yintimiglia, seated on a rock, and somewhat deserted, is 
an ancient town, claiming its ancestry from the Romans. 
Cicero mentions it in his JEpistolce Familiares, and Tacitus 
narrates the action of that Ligurian mother who perished in 
the pillage of the town, rather than yield up her son to the 



A NOBLE MOTHER. 83 



soldiers of Otho; she was tortured to make her confess where 
he was concealed, but, says the historian, Uterum ostendens, 
latere resjpondit. The ancient cathedral was perhaps the temple 
of Juno, and the Church of Saint Michael, that of Castor and 
Pollux. Latte is the fashionable resort, the Albano of Yen- 
timigiians. 

The small State of the Prince of Monaco, projecting into the 
sea, is only an orangery on a rock. 

La Turbia, the last place of interest on the route of the 
Riviera, still holds the remarkable ruins of the trophies of 
Augustus, which were erected to him by the Senate, in memory 
of the battle of Actium, and were surmounted by his colossal 
statue; it is not unlikely that La Turbia takes its name from 
these trophies, (Trophcea Augusti,) which, at a distance, has 
the aspect of a tovver. This tower is the last of the many 
wonderful points of view on the road. The coast of Italy, 
from Genoa to Nice, seemed to me superior to the other part 
extending to Leghorn. It offers a succession of brilliant pro- 
montories, covered with olive groves, whose pale verdure con- 
trasts with the vivid green of the pines, the orange, lemon, and 
chestnut trees; immense palaces, pretty red-painted houses, 
cupolas, and steeples of churches, add to the effect of this 
vast decoration, interspersed with rocks and torrents; in some 
parts beautiful valleys, under cultivation, extend by the side* of 
the sea, and from smiling and tranquil bays of verdure, beside 
the restless azure of the waves. The rising and setting of the 
sun, are admirable on this horizon ; nature here unfolds at every 
step her most magnificent scenery.. 

Nothing, therefore, could more properly terminate the incom- 
parable beauty of this variety of perspective, than the pictu- 
resque aspect of its terminus — the town of Nice. 



84 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 



NICE. 

I was not disappointed with the interior of this town, while 
walking through its cleanly and well-paved streets after our 
entrance. Notwithstanding the interest created by the memory 
of this seat of the famous Grand Council of the Church, 
Nice, with all its antiquities and its amphitheatre, seemed less 
an Italian town than one of the old French prefectures; the 
sign boards are in French, and the Savoyard garrison spoke 
the same tongue ; Nice also belonged to France, as part of the 
county of Provence; Malherbe regretted its loss, and in these 
admirable verses expressed his wish to see it retaken: 

" Guise en ses murailles forcees, 
Kemettra les bornes passees, 
Qu'avoit notre empire marin ;" 

in his ode to Maria de Medici, on 4he happy future of France. 

The climate is genial rather than brilliant, and the popula- 
tion chiefly consists of a languishing colony of opulent strangers, 
most of them victims of the factitious enjoyments of society, 
who are prematurely destroyed by their apparently happy, but 
really miserable kind of life, of which listlessness, regret, and 
disappointment are the incurable diseases. The public pro- 
menade inspired a kind of melancholy ; I saw some young 
English ladies there, who were charming and of fair complexion, 
but pale, and on the confines of death. 

There are certain maladies against which the climate of 
Nice, far from being efficacious, as imagined, is mortal ; thus 
every year's experience tends to prove that it hastens the end 
of persons attacked by pulmonary consumption. 



EDOUARD AND OURIKA. 85 



" Although presenting no object of art, Nice," says Yalery, 
"was associated in his mind with the memory of a superior 
woman, whom I was fortunate enough to see again there, for 
the last time, shortly before she died." The Duchess of Duras, 
author of Edouard and Ourika, the delicate and pathetic pain- 
ter of the fatality of social inequalities, then inhabited a small 
house at the extremity of the town. It was not, indeed, the 
animated and brilliant saloon of Paris, which combined the 
taste, elegance and politeness of the French society of past 
days ; and the education, reason, and solidity of the new 
society, where are met all the eminent men in politics, letters, 
sciences and arts ; but this lone house, this orange-orchard 
was the hospital, the solitude of an invalid assiduously tended 
by a beloved daughter. The loss of the Duchess of Duras, so 
painful to her friends, who alone could know all the truth, 
activity, devotedness, and enthusiasm of her noble character, 
seemed also a kind of calamity for mere people of the world : 
such saloons have a happy influence over opinion ; they do 
honor to the country, and promote civilization ; they excite 
and develope its genius, and represent it nobly to the eyes of 
foreigners. 

TO MARSEILLE S. 

The first portion of the road out from Nice was of a similar 
character to the path of our journey thitherward ; it might still 
be called the Riviera, for it continues in view of the sea ; alter- 
nately leaving it, and regaining it, until all sight of the waters 
is finally lost at Firgus. Our course from this point became 
still more interesting from the fact of the occurring season of 
the harvesting of the crops. Here we saw them treading out 



86 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

the grain with horses, after the manner of the East, with oxen, 
(the nse of the flail apparantly not being in vogue). The 
view here obtained of the Estrella mountains, while we were 
passing over Mont de Grasse, was magnificent, commanding a 
sweep that embraced even the pretty green little isles of Saint 
Marguerite, which shone like emeralds in the distant sea. 

Immediately after crossing the frontier, you will be struck 
with the contrast exhibited between France and Savoy. 
Observe the improvement in the roads; the more careful and 
individual cultivation of the soil ; the happier air of the pea- 
santry, and the coy grace of the pretty persons, and smiling 
faces of those pert little bonneted demoiselles who pass you by 
the way-side. Everything tends to remind you of "la belle 
France," that country which is still gay, in spite of the fresh- 
ness of a new revolution. The olives and grapes of France 
supplant the oranges and figs of Piedmont, as her more gene- 
rous nature displaces the stern and sterile features of the moun- 
tains of Savoy. The vine is nourished from the soil with no 
other support than a few small uprightly set sticks. 

While running over these mountains, I missed the luxuri- 
ant verdure of our forests covering the Alleghanies, being 
reminded of them by the naked outlines. 

At Firgus, where we saw some fine relics of the ancient 
Roman aqueducts, we left the sea road entirely, and crossing 
over the weary length of the vast sand plain, skirting the woods 
of Brignole, were soon lost to all recollection of the famous 
brigands that once inhabited these forests, for we had fallen 
asleep under the murmurs of the rustling foliage, and we slept until 
we awoke at Aix, with a feeling of chagrin at hearing that this 
was not the Aix of Champagne; or, if it was, we were not able 
either to get any of it to drink, or to learn from the natives, 



SANS CULOTTES. 8T 



whether this grape had ever been raised in the country. There 
is not a more monotonous road in the world, than that which 
stretches its line from Aix to the port; and a sense of weari- 
ness and solitude controls your thoughts until the eye glistens 
at the first sight of of the noble fort and city of Marseilles. 



MARSEILLES. 

THE CITY. 

"Look out for a row to morrow/ 7 said the venerable Mon- 
sieur Rabout, my banker, as I seated myself in a quiet corner 
of his cabinet, waiting for him to cash my credit from the 
Barings. 

" Revolutions are fearful things for the rich," he added, " and 
if this state of affairs continue, we shall all of us have to emi- 
grate from France." 

"You had better not," I replied, "this emeute may soon 
blow over, and things will settle down in a few days in a calmer 
state, when order will be restored ; and it would be folly for 
the only respectable people in France to quit the country, at 
the time when they were most needed to confront the actions 
of the enemy, and by withdrawing with their moneys, thus 
deprive the government of the sinews of war. You had best stay 
and fight it out my friend," I continued, " the red republicans 
will soon fail in their plots, and the sans culottes will be pro- 
vided with pantaloons, in Cayenne. I will not stay to see the 
fun." 

Marseilles, therefore, under this present state of excitement, 
offered few inducements for a sojourn in the city; besides its 
Parisian aspect took away all the original interest which it 



88 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

otherwise might have had, if the imitation of the capital was 
not so perceptibly obtrusive. 

SOUTH OF FRANCE. 

On the following morning, that of the anticipated outbreak 
- — (the revolution did not happen as it was expected) — I took 
the cars at the station, and before ten o'clock was on my way to 
Montpelier. The usual activity and bustle incidental to a 
railway depot, had attracted me to observe the peculiar gaiety 
and excitability of the people, and to remark the strong con- 
trast existing between the French laborers and the peasants of 
Savoy. 

What a relief it was to be steamed away from the din and 
dust of a market town, and thus launched, as it were, into the 
bosom of nature, for the freer indulgence of one's thought, or 
the fresher breath of pure air at the lungs ! Nevertheless, 
all rail road rides are stupid in themselves, for you are so 
pummelled and jumbled by the nervous vibrations of their 
running motion, that your body quivers like a jelly at the end 
of your journey, and little is left for the brains to digest, where 
objects of sensation are so rapidly sent through the sight, that 
landscape and animals hurry away like objects on the lenses of 
a magic-lantern. Fortunately there was nothing worthy of 
especial attention on the route. In the cars, however, I formed 
the acquaintance of a young Spanish girl, who was returning 
from Turin to her home at Yittoria, in Spain, after a period 
of instruction as a governess at Turin. This happy meeting 
gave me an opportunity to brush up my knowledge of the 
Spanish language, for there is no more facile and agreeable 
way of learning a tongue, than that of listening to the speech 



SANS CEREMONIE. 89 



of a pretty young female, with whom it would not be difficult to 
revive a small feeling of love. There is no better dictionary 
of language than the lips of a fascinating woman. 

Our other companions in the same cars, were several young 
Arab boys, on their way to school at 'the military college of 
Perpignan; they afforded me an occasion to recall my slumber- 
ing Arabic, so that between the governess and these youths, 
with the advantage of two tongues, and a constant use of the 
French, my journey as far as Montpelier, proved more interest- 
ing than I had anticipated w^hen I started from the station. 

On arriving at the first relay-house we were obliged to be 
ferried over the Rhone, the railroad-bridge not having yet been 
completed over this stream. Having resumed our seats in the 
cars, on the opposite bank of the river, we were impelled by 
our iron-horse through a very pleasant country as far as Nymes. 

Here we stopped about one hour ; and my Spanish sweet- 
heart and I, wasted the interval by dining quite cosily and 
sans ceremonie at a tratteur in the neighborhood of the hotel. 
While discussing our meals we were heartily entertained by the 
amusing loquacity of a traveled lacquey, who conversed very 
learnedly on several topics of history and antiquity, thus help- 
ing our digestion with a variety of philosophical and literary 
remarks. After our repast we walked out to admire and 
wander over the superb ruins of an ancient Roman coloseum, 
which was in an exellent state of preservation. 

We arrived at Montpelier about dark ; and having supped, 
left for Toulouse, by a road leading through one of the most 
cultivated districts in the South of France, and skirting that 
rich plain of arable land embraced between the parallel spurs 
of the hills, crossed these as they extended their projections 
from the Pyrenees. I was quite pleased with the situation of 



90 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

Toulouse, as it lay stretched over both sides of the Garonne, 
with its excellently planned gardens and charming promenades 
along the banks of the river. 

Among the passengers which the interior of the diligence 
took at Toulouse, were the wife of an English horse-jockey, a 
Spanish merchant, and an emigrant who took especial care of 
my young Spanish companion, under the plea that she was 
un paisano, a compatriot of the same province. We had a 
delightful ride from Toulouse, but saw little of interest on the 
road until we arrived at the town of Auch for dinner. Here, 
having dined to our satisfaction, we started out from the hotel, 
in spite of the remonstrance of the conductor, who threatened 
to leave without us, in order to visit the celebrated cathedral 
of this town, and, as the ladies were with us, we dared him to 
attempt to start, w r ell knowing that we had tickets for a 
through passage, and that he would not venture to arrive with 
an empty stage. From this point the journey became much 
more agreeable, for we became better acquainted with our 
fellow-passengers, and the face of the country through which 
we passed wore a more undulatory aspect, while the view was 
relieved by occasional glimpses over the outlines of the remote 
Pyrenees. 

At Pau we were obliged to separate from our English and 
Spanish companions, and having taken leave of them, I had no 
resource but to visit the famous old chateau of Henri Quatre, 
wherein, at that moment, Abdel Kader, the African chieftain, 
was imprisoned. This old castle seemed a glorious remnant 
of the feudal ages, and it appeared like a revival of its former 
glories, to have a barbarian chief placed within its strongholds. 
The Arab, Abdel Kader, deserved a better fate at the hands 
of his captors ; a Roman would have crowned the warrior 






EAUX B0XXES. 91 



and patriot, who had fought so nobly for his country and his 
home. 

Being quite tired of Pau, and of its English residents and 
gardens, I sought relief at the waters of the Eaux Bonnes, in 
the Pyrenees. The ride out to this watering-place was truly 
delightful, reminding me somewhat of the valleys in the lower 
cantons of Switzerland, for the baths are beautifully situated at 
the foot of the Pyrenees, which almost looked down upon them 
from their giddy heights. On our approach we were met by a 
company of pretty blanchisseuses, who solicited our washing at 
the most reasonable terms, these escorted our coach to the 
vicinity of the hotel at which we lodged, and there having left 
us, with their usual French courtesy departed, but not without 
first having left a card upon which were printed the terms of a 
washing at " prix fixe." I went immediately to bed after our 
arrival and fell into a profound sleep which lasted until seven 
o'clock in the evening, from which, having awakened, I arose 
and ordered a fresh bed for the remainder of the night. 

The " Eaux Bonnes " to me, who was not an invalid, proved 
to be the most stupid place that I had ever seen. It may be 
pleasant enough for invalids, but to me, in spite of the grounds 
which were prettily laid out, there was nothing of interest, save 
a walk among the hills, or a stroll by the side of the rills, that 
furnished waters for the bathers. 

They have happily been named the " French Switzerlands " 
from their picturesque and much frequented situation, for the 
characteristic features of the Pyrenees at this point on the 
border of France and Spain are exceedingly bold and romantic. 
We returned to Pau, on the afternoon of the second day. 

On the following morning, at five, I took the diligence from 
Pau to Bayonne, by a road far more picturesque than that of 



92 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

yesterday leading to the baths, and becoming still more inter- 
esting, as it approached Bayonne, the situation of which was 
truly charming. The town itself wore a lively and gay aspect 
as we entered, the women had all the manners and grace of the 
Parisian, wearing thin kerchiefs on the back of the head so as 
to contrast richly with the folds of their well arranged suits of 
hair. The bridge over the A dour separates the Jews' from the 
other quarters of the town. Bayonne, the Basque, Bay-o-na, 
" the good port" is placed on the Nive and Adour. The strong 
citadel, fortified by Yauban, was the key of Soult's position in 
1814, and the scene of one of the last most murderous and 
unnecessary conflicts between the French and English. Here 
the bayonet finished the work, and on the spot where it was 
first used by some Basques, who stuck their knives in their 
muskets' muzzles ; now it is the English weapon, which no foe 
has ever dared to face twice. 

In the old castle of Bayonne opposite the Prefecture, in 1563, 
did Catherine de Medicis, an Italian Machaivelli, meet Alva, a 
Spanish man of blood and bigotry, and planned the massacre of 
St. Bartholomew, which was executed August 24, 1572, to the 
joy of the Vatican and the Escorial, for Philip II. never 
laughed heartily but that once. 

The cathedral is well worthy of notice. Thus from Mar- 
seilles to Bayonne I was transferred by coach, from the Medi- 
terranean to the Atlantic. The situation of Bayonne on the 
bosom of a rich valley, surrounded by the spurs .of young 
mountains, was pre-eminently lovely. 

B I a ri t z . 

In company with some Frenchmen from Champagne, I 
visited the sea baths of Biaritz. It was a glorious feeling to 



SEA BATHING. 93 



plunge into the ocean at this point of the Bay of Biscay. 
What a thrill of joy came over me, and what a crowd of 
pleasant thoughts rushed into my brain, as I dipped into the 
waves of these same waters which were washing the shores and 
rock-bound coasts of my own native home in America! Such 
moments have a power to rouse the fires of the soul, when 
kindred thoughts are awakened, and the heart's finest chords 
vibrate through the medium of the elements. 

From the cliff-built Phare of the Biaritz, the rocky, iron- 
bound coast of hard Iberia looms in view. This first glance 
of a new land and people, relieves the monotony of the com- 
mon-place Landes, which extends to Bourdeaux. Now, what 
a change awaits those who love surprises and comparisons. It 
is the passing into a new planet, or like crossing from Dover to 
Calais, both so near, indeed, to France, and yet so widely, 
so irrevocably apart from antipathetic French ways and things. 

At Bidart the Basque country is entered, and the peasantry 
are at least cognate with those on each side of the Bidasoa, 
but their's is a neutral ground, and they are Basques — that is, 
neither French nor Spaniards. 



94 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 



SPAIN. 

"QUI EN DICE ESPA&A, DICE T D 0." 

A wooden bridge, painted with a dingy red, on the French 
side, crosses the Bidasoa, which flows like the British Channel, 
between these two antagonistical nations. 

This river, once crossed, the first sight and welcome of Spain 
will scarcely inspire the mind with love; but the noble people, 
and their wild, racy, original country, improve on better ac- 
quaintance, and the more as we advance into the sunny orien- 
tal East and South. 

Now, you have quitted France and French things, all around 
breathes a jo y Espanolismo, mules and mantillas; and however 
lacking in surface and sensual civilization, Man is here the 
vigorous plant of a strong soil; here he stands erect, full of 
personal dignity and individual worth and independence; the 
members, indeed, are strong in masculine virility and vitality, 
although a head be wanting. Yet the Spanish people are still 
unbroken, despite of Austrian and Bourbon, who have failed to 
dwarf their high spirit and character, and sacrifice their worth, 
valor, and intelligence, to advance the personal intrigues of 
unworthy rulers in church, camp, and cabinet. 

We had taken the diligence at Bayonne, and our drive as far 
as the frontier was extremely agreeable, with occasional glimpses 
of the sea on one hand, and views of the distant Pyrenees on 



A MULE TEAM. 95 



the other. At Irun, the first Spanish town, rising conspicu- 
ously in front on its hill, we changed both the character of our 
journey, and the animals attached to the vehicle. 

While the annoyance of passports was attended to, and the 
baggage examined, I was curiously engaged in watching the 
manner of tackling our first team of mules. Eight of these 
beasts were harnessed in the places of the horses we left behind; 
thus again clearly indicating that we were in Spain. The lug- 
gage having been weighed and sealed to Madrid, we took a 
glance at the village of Irun, with its projecting balconies, 
groined roofs, and Spanish signs — so peculiarly characteristic 
of the nation — and perceiving that all was ready for a start, 
we entered the coupe and then shut to the door. The draft 
mules having been properly hitched to, the postillion mounted 
his horse, the calesero took his seat by the side of the majoral, 
who then in a loud voice started the stage off, the whole 
team running at fall speed. In the middle of this gallop, the 
calesero jumping off the box, ran along the road, and halloo- 
ing at the top of his voice, goaded the jacks, while he repeat- 
edly yelled at the leader, and bawling out lustily, shouted : 
"Arrah! arre ! anda caballo ! hoah ! generate! carrajo ! — ah 
oa ! anda colonella — oa cacletta ! — and whoop, angelo de dios 
and carean ! pirara. ! " Wildly the whole troop rushed up the 
hill, like a beggar on horseback bound to the devil. So furi- 
ously did the beasts mount the steep that the rocking and 
cracking coach dashed and tossed us about like a churn, for 
they rolled up the diligence with such a thundering rattle, that 
the racket on the road woke up a fat old citizen who was 
quietly taking his siesta on the balcony of his house. 

At the same rapid and excitable rate, we were driven 
through the extent of the Basque provinces. This curious 



9G TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

people, possessing a peculiar manner and dialect — a hardy and 
industrious race of mountaineers — are quite independent of the 
Castiles, and, in fact, are the true republicans of the north. 
We were struck with the rich verdure of the well-cultivated 
hill-sides, and remarked the great abundance of the in-gathering 
harvest. The neat appearance of the cottages, with high, 
shelving roofs, and happy peasantry inhabiting them, often 
reminded us of Switzerland. 

We had not proceeded much farther before we reached that 
singular district called the " Pasages" where the sea enters 
within the narrow bounds of the adjoining hills, so narrowly as 
scarcely to admit the hull of a single vessel. Behind these 
straits lies a deep, land-locked bay, one of the best harbors on 
this rock-bound coast, but when once within, ships ride safely. 
Our road, passing at first by the sides of the mountains, at 
length crossed the lagoon, enabling us to obtain a magnificent 
view of the hills and valleys that adorn the outlines of this 
sloping coast. Saint Sebastian also enjoys a similarity of posi- 
tion in the gift of its natural harbor. This town was formerly 
the depot of the Phillipine and India Companies. It appeared 
to be separated from the main land ; in fact, being only united 
to it by the draw-bridge of its castle. 

Mantillas were first observed at this place, where the cos- 
tumes of the peasant began to attract our notice, and the 
maidens who wore their pretty straw-hats, suffered their long, 
twisted braids of hah 1 to fall over their shoulders, secured 
by long streamers of ribbons in beau-knots. The postillions 
here assumed their low-crowned, velvet hats, trimmed with 
black cockades ; and the ox-carts, borne along by tasseled 
beasts, had their wheels made of tires and cross-braces of 
wood. Besides what funny hats the curates wear, having 



QUEER HATS. 97 



the semblance of a stove-funnel with a hole for the head, or, 
perhaps, more like one of our patent Yankee smoke-curers. 

The latter part of the road to Tolosa is a charming pastoral, 
Swiss-like ride, especially the last four or five miles among the 
hills, wild woods, and long-leaved chestnuts. The situation of 
Tolosa on the banks of the Urola is quite picturesque ; and her 
women have magnificently fine eyes, opening like almonds. 

We wake up and find ourselves crossing the Sierra, drawn 
by eight oxen, with the sound of our muleteer's voice hallooing 
and screaming, while urging the beasts up the mountain. 

What a picture of wildness was there presented in the solitude 
of the dark hour while passing over the Pyrenees, mountains 
of less ruggedness, and better cultivated than the Appenines. 

About four o'clock in the morning we passed through the 
walled town of Mandragon, well placed on the banks of the 
beautiful Deva, while the moon flooded its surface and the 
stream with gushes of brilliant light. Before reaching Yittoria 
we crossed the Welsh-like hills of this region, with green copses, 
maize crops, and pretty villages perched on the eminences, amid 
chestnut groves. Here the Irish-looking hat of Castile gives 
place to the low, blue cap, or hereto,. The legs of the peasants 
are swathed up to the knees with Moorish bandages, and 
their feet encased in Iberian brogues. The women toil at their 
hard tasks, and look old and broken. The architect will now 
remark the pepper-pot belfrey-domes of the churches, the carved 
coats-of-arms over the portals of the family mansions, and the 
solidly-built houses, with projecting cornices and protecting 
roofs. Here rain and damp are the enemies of the climate, 
while stone and iron are the drugs of the soil. 

At Yittoria, a busy and flourishing post town, of about 
12,000 inhabitants, placed on a gentle eminence above its plain, 

5 



98 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

we dismissed our first postillion. One could not fail remarking 
the wonderful hardihood of this youth, who had ridden for a 
continuous period of twenty-four hours with scarcely any relief 
but the time afforded in changing the horses at the relays. 

This town offers a novel contrast in the old and new portions ; 
the former with its curious plaza, its dark tortuous streets, being 
directly opposite to the latter which is all line and rule. The 
public alemedas are charming places of resort for the people, 
outside the town, where under the leafy avenues of la Florida 
and el Prado the lower classes meet and dance in the afternoon. 

Yittoria, the capital of Alava, which is the last of the 
Basque Provinces reminded us of the origin of the Basque, and 
led to the consultation of a work, in order to describe the 
peculiar characteristics of this people. 

THE BASQUE PROVINCES. 

Las Provincias Yascongadas consist of the three united pro- 
vinces of Alava, Yiscaoa, and Guipuscoa. These provinces form- 
ing the mountainous triangle of the northwest of the Penin- 
sula, are the Cantabria of the ancients, a name derived by some 
from Kent-Aber, which they interpret the " Corner of the 
Water." This corner of the land, like Wales, is the home of 
the remnant of the aboriginal inhabitants, who never have 
been expelled or subdued; thus the character of an unadul- 
terated primitive race remains strongly marked in language and 
nationality. The Highlanders, bred on metal-pregnant moun- 
tains, and nursed amid storms in a cradle indomitable as them- 
selves, have always known how to forge their iron into arms, 
and to wield them in defence of their independence; and what 
sword equals that one which is moulded from the plough-share ? 



UNION IS STRENGTH. 99 



A sense of separate weakness has taught these provinces the 
secret of union. This federal association is expressed in their 
national symbol of three hands joined together, with the 
" Irurac Bat" which is equivalent to the tria juncta in uno, of 
the Bath order of the united kingdom. 

Universal nobility is the birth-right of every Basque peasant. 
Peppery as the Welsh, proud as Lucifer, and combustible as 
matches, these pauper peers fire up when their pedigree is 
questioned, and well did Don Quixote^ (I. 8) know how to 
annoy a Biscayan, by telling him that " he was no gentleman." 
Basque gentility often consists rather in blood than manners ; 
better born than bred, the Cantabrian is not always courteous 
nor ever quick in, rendering honor to whom honor is due; he 
considers a sort of boorishhess to indicate a republican inde- 
pendence, and thinks the deference which one well conditioned 
person pays to another to be a degradation to his noble birth- 
right ; their provinces may be the three Graces of Spain, but 
the natives sacrifice but little to those amiable types. 

The modern Basques, however brave and active as indivi- 
duals, form very bad regular soldiers, as they are too obstinate 
to tolerate drill and discipline ; again they can only be 
managed by one of themselves. Gonzalo de Cordova affirmed 
that he would sooner be a keeper of wild beasts than the com- 
mander of the Basques. They are excellent at Guerrilla war- 
fare, commerce, etc. 

In time of peace, fishing forms the occupation of those who 
dwell on the sea-board ; agricultural and pastoral pursuits 
inland ; the ores of the iron-pregnant hills are worked at 
smithies as rude as those of the Iberians. The towns are Swiss- 
like, surrounded with green hills and enlivened by trout 
streams ; the streets are often drawn at straight line, intersect- 



100 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

ing at right angles; and the alemedas are pretty. The sombre 
looking balconied houses are so solidly built that they look 
like fortresses, and here every gentleman's house is indeed his 
castle. 

Agriculture being the first profession of Adam, who bore 
arms, is not held to degrade these peasant peers. Simple, 
hardy and patient, they have the virtues and vices of high- 
landers, and feeling strongly attached to their mountain home, 
love their rocks and Alps, and are wretched when torn from 
them. These provinces are made up of mountain and valley, 
with a sea-board line. The elevated slopes are covered with 
oak and chestnut trees, and the produce of the country is corn, 
apples and wine. 

Shortly after leaving Yittoria, we left the province of Alava, 
the last of the Basque territory, on the other side of the Ebro. 
This river is passed at Miranda by a fine bridge. Nature 
becomes less fair, fountains less abundant, the population 
diminishes, and the towns have no more trees and gardens near 
them; the face of the peasant is sterner, for poverty is still 
there. The square tower of the churches is changed for the 
open belfry. The town is utterly uninteresting; here are 
placed the custom-house offices, as this is the fiscal frontier of 
Castile. The Ebro is the geographical and vegetable line of 
demarcation between the Basque provinces and the Castiles. 

What a contrast was here presented between the smiling 
aspect of the one, and the gloomy, sterile, and harsh nature of 
the other. 

In fact all Spain is a conglomerate of strong contrasts, and 
of divers people and manners, differing, in all its parts, both in 
the aspect of its nature and the character of its soil and inhabi- 
tants. Its provinces are held together more by the community 



CHATEAUX EN ESPAGNE. 101 

of speech, than by the sovereign head, and is suffered to live 
out their half normal existence by the consent of the other 
continental nations. Hence, Spain has ever been, and will 
continue to be, the prey of foreigners and the land of guerrillas. 

THE CA STILES. 

How different, also, the aspect of the two Castiles, these 
empire provinces, which join each other, and constitute a large 
portion of the central plateau of Spain, of which they are 
truly the El coro, corazon y Castilla, the choir, " heart and 
citadel :" composed chiefly of tertiary formation, they rise at an 
average about 2,000 feet above the sea. 

Here, we were, then, in Castile proper, — the New Castile, 
"viejo y fmlP This "canting" name of Castilla was taken 
from the number of the fortresses erected on the frontier of 
Leon and the Asturias, whence the Moors called the province 
Ardo-1-Kaloa r " the Land of the Castles," and also Kashtellah. 
These primitive castles were no unsubstantial Chateaux en Es~ 
pagne, but solid, real defences, and held by brave men, and built 
in imitation of Roman citadels, the noble masonry being quite 
unlike the Oriental tapia of the Moorish Alcazares of the South. 

The two Castiles are the largest provinces in Spain, and 
contain some of the oldest and most interesting cities. The 
mountains are highly picturesque, abounding in curious botany 
and geology, and their Swiss-like valleys are watered by trout 
streams; they present a perfect contrast to the parameras, 
tierras de campo y secanos, the plains and table-lands, which are 
lonely, tiresome steppes, bounded only by the horizon, silent, 
treeless, songless, and without hedges, enclosures, or landmarks, 
looking as if belonging to no one, and not worth possessing. 



102 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

The Castilians have a singular antipathy to trees, and, like 
Orientals, they seldom plant any, except those which bear 
fruit or give shade for their alaniedas. They imagine that the 
branches harbor birds which eat up corn. 

Shade, fuel, and timber for domestic purposes are in conse- 
quence dear at Madrid, an evil which is daily increasing. 
"Water is very scarce, not only for irrigation, but even for 
domestic uses, and nature and man are alike dusty and tawny ; 
everything is brown, his house, his jacket, his stew, his wife, 
and his ass. 

The plains, however, are some of the finest wheat districts in 
the world. The Chamorro and the Candeal are the best and 
usual sorts of grain, of which, however, there are more than 
twenty varieties. 

The Castilian is muyhorado y hombre de lien, vir bonus, a 
good man and true; but he is well-bred rather than polite, and 
inclined to receive rather than to make advances, being seldom 
what the French call prevenant, but then, when once attached, 
he is sincere; his manner is marked by a most practical 
equality; for all feel equal to the proudest noble through their 
common birthright of being Castilians. Treat them, however, 
as they expect to be treated, and all this ceremony of form and 
of words, all this nicety of sitting down and getting up, will 
not be found to extend to deeds. 

The Castilians, from their male and trustworthy character, 
are still Robur Hispaniae (Flor. ii. 11, 9,) the virility, vitality, 
and heart of the nation, and the sound stuff of which it has to 
be reconstructed. A genuine one is true to his God and king, 
his religion running often into bigotry, his loyalty into subser- 
viency; he hates foreign dictation, clings to the ways of his 
ancestors, thinks Spain the first kingdom in the world, the 



PURE CASTILIAX. 10 



o 



Castiles its first provinces, and himself the first of its popula- 
tion. No wonder, therefore, that these peasants, as Addison 
said of those in the Georgics, toss about even manure with an 
air of dignity; this is the result also of natural instinct even 
more than of social conventions, since each, esteeming himself 
inferior to none but the king, cares little for the accidents of 
rank and fortune. Nor does poverty, the great crime never to 
be pardoned in England, unless it be very grinding, here unfit a 
person for society, Pobreza no es vileza ; nor does it destroy 
personal respectability and independence; indeed, where the 
majority are poor, the not being rich does not degrade, and an 
innate gentility of race, which nothing can take away, renders 
them indifferent to the changes and chances of fickle prosperity, 
and proud even in rags. 

The Castilian, in particular, claims to be synonymous with the 
Spaniard in general, and gives his name to the kingdom, nation, 
and language; and his grand pretension is to be an old one, 
Castellano viejo y rancio, and spotless, sin mancha ; that is, 
uncontaminated with the black blood of new converts from 
Moor or Jew. 

While engaged in transcribing the above epitome of the 
Castiles and the Castilians, my thoughts naturally reverted to 
the strange scene then presented from our position near the 
bridge over the Ebro, where the wild torrent was rushing fear- 
fully under the piers, and the novel features of this region 
threw a mournful cast over our reflections. 

Such a ragged set of beggars, miserable villagers and fallen 
ruins, in keeping with the poverty of the country, forced our 
attention to the present condition of the land, in melancholy 
contrast with the pomp and glory of the ancient kingdom under 
the magnificent reign of Ferdinand and Isabel. 



104 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

Throughout the whole route of this day the face of nature 
presented a dull and dreary aspect, mountain succeeded the 
monotonous waste of land where cultivation ceased, and nothing 
of interest relieved the path until we reached the picturesque 
pass of Pancorbo, between the defiles of the mountains of Oca 
and the Pyrenees spurs, where the river Oroncillo and the road 
have scarcely room to thread the shadowy, narrow gorge, in 
the middle of which is a chapel to Nuestra Sefiora del Camino, 
our Holy Lady who superintends the way, and protects travelers 
from avalanches, for all around arise fantastic rocks, which 
hem in this natural portal and barrier of Castile, in which 
the old Spaniards defied the Moorish advance, and the modern 
ones ran away frightened even at the name of Buonaparte. 
Above, to the west, was a ruined castle, which commanded a 
fine view of the Rioja ; in it Roderick is said to have seduced 
the ill-omened Cava : ay ! de Espana perdida jper un gusto. 

What a host of beggars rushed up to the sides of our dili- 
gence when we " stopped" at any of the relay-houses in order 
to change our mules. They appeared in such a variety of rags, 
as if they were caricaturing their own parts and professions. 
Their coats and pantaloons were not only of many colors, like 
Joseph's, but made of ten thousand patches : so covered as 
to bury completely their original identity, and the often-mended 
stocking, caused one to doubt whether they had ever possessed 
even a consciousness of their originality. 

BURGOS. 

Towards evening we came in sight of the noble steeple of the 
Cathedral of Burgos, rising with its superb pile of florid Gothic, 
and clustering filagree pinnacles. Soon after entering the 



FEAST-TREACHERY. 105 



town we hurried across the main square, in order to visit the 
superb cathedral, which was considered by Kapoleon to be 
Spain's greatest jewel. The mind naturally recurred to the 
period of the ancient greatness of this kingdom, when Burgos 
was the seat of kings. I shall never forget the aspect of its 
cathedral on our approach, as the last rays _of sunset blazed 
through the two towers, and illuminated the crowning spires 
of the most delicate stone-work, which looked like so much 
lace. The various chapels of this cathedral deserve close in- 
spection, from being full of good sculpture, tombs, and painted 
glass. The grandest is that del Condestable, which was erected 
as the burial place of the Yelasco family, the hereditory con- 
stables of Castile. Its rich florid Gothic cajpilla is as large as 
some churches, and as admirable inside and outside as its pin- 
nacles, or agujas, form a charming cluster, and correspond with 
the spires. The engrailed edges of the archway form a rich 
lace-like frame, under which the light, simple, and cheerful 
chapel is seen, with its tombs and heraldic decorations. These 
fine tombs were sculptured in Italy ; the costumes, armour, 
lace-work, and details deserve a study. 

Burgos, a name connected by some with the Iberian Briga, at 
all events means a " fortified eminence," and is akin, to Burgh, 
Borough, Bury, etc. It was at first subject in some degree to 
to the kings of Leon, when Fruela II., about the year 926, in- 
vited the chief rulers to a feast and then put them to death. 
The citizens of Burgos thereupon elected judges to govern them. 
The most celebrated of these magistrates were Nuno Rasura, 
Lain Calvo, and others who figure in old historical ballads. 
At length Fernan Gonzalez shook off the yoke of Leon, and in 
him the title of " Conde de Castillo," became hereditary, and a 
"Count" was then equivalent to an independent sovereign. 



106 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

Thus, as among the Jews, the age of the law preceded the age 
of the monarchy. His granddaughter Nuna married Sancho el 
Mayor of Navarre, whose son, Ferdinand I. of Castile, united 
in 1067 the kingdoms of Leon and Castile by marrying Sancha, 
sole daughter of Bermudo III. 

When Alonso VI., in 1085, raised Toledo to the rank of 
capital, disputes of precedence arose between Burgos and its 
rival, which were only compromised in 1349 by Alonso XI., 
who directed Burgos to speak first in Cortes, saying that he 
would speak for Toledo. The kings of Castile, by removing 
their court from Burgos, cut away the sources of its prosperity, 
which the invasion completed. The population has decayed 
from 50,000 to 12,000; but still Burgos is venerable-looking, 
dull, damp, and cold, with a marked character about it, of a 
genuine old Gothic Castilian city, and those who dwell in it are 
also Castellanos rancios yviejos — good men and true. Its chief 
support arises from the traffic of travelers going to Madrid. 
Its cheese, the queso de Burgos, is very much renowned in Spain, 
but those, who know Stilton and Parmesan will think it better 
suited to hungry Sancho Panza's taste than to theirs. 

The French entered Burgos for the first time Nov. 10, 1808, 
which is the epoch of its ruin, the whole Spanish army under 
Belveder, having turned and fled at the opening charge of the 
invaders, who did not lose fifty men. The unresisting city was 
then sacked by Bessieres, a la Rioseco; here, however, he was 
only the agent of Buonaparte in person, who wished, by an 
early example of terror, to intimidate all future resistance. 
His views were so perfectly carried out, that he thought it 
prudent to lament, in a bulletin to be read at Paris, the 
" horrors which made him shudder," but which one little word 
spoken by him on the spot would have prevented. 



SPUR OF A COCK. 101 



Burgos is shaped in an irregular semi-circle with large por- 
tions of the old walls remaining on the river front. The grand 
gate de Santa Maria is massy, strengthened with bartizan 
turrets and battlemented, and her image crowns the pile. 
Charles V. added the statues of Burgalese worthies, which are 
grouped in niches around his own, to wit, Don Diego Porcelos, 
Fernan Gonzalez, the Cid, Xuno Rasura, and Lain Calvo. 
The river Alanzon flows through planted walks to the Isla, 
where the French built a stone bridge, which the patriotic 
natives destroyed after the evacuation, because the work of an 
enemy. The river flows down to the Vega, while higher up i3 
the Espolon or Esplanada, which, with its gardens, was laid 
out by the Marquis de Villena. The heavy statues of Fernan 
Gonzalez, Alonso III., Henrique III, and Ferdinand I., were 
placed there by Charles III. The white regular modern row 
of houses on the Esjpolon, " the spur of a cock," or "the angle 
of a pier " by which water is broken, encase the ancient town 
like a new binding does an old book, and contrast with the 
dark irregular lanes behind, and the gloomy half-fortress man- 
sions in the Calle Alta, San Lorenzo, Avellanos, San Juan, and 
older quarters. 

Every one should devote a day to a pilgrimage to Miraflores, 
and the tomb of the Cid. One word on the Cid, now we stand 
near his grave. Rodrigo Ruy Diaz of Yibar, where he was 
born in 1026, is the Prince, the Champion of Spain, el Cid 
Campcador, the hero of Gotho-Spanish epos : his boast was to 
be a Castilian " to the back-bone," Castellano a las derechas. 
Thus, in the ' Poema del Cid, 7 written in the twelfth century, its 
Achilles, even then, was spoken of with pride and affection, 
being already like Nelson, the property of his whole nation, el 
rnio Cid, my Cid. " He who was born in a good hour," — "he 



108 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 



who in an auspicious moment girded on sword;" and he feels 
himself to be the honor of his country, " Soy el Cid, Honra, 
de Espana," which he is always ready to prove by his good 
sword. The leading events of his life have been handed down 
in an unbroken series of Spanish and Moorish writers ; Alonso 
el Sabio, in the thirteenth century, speaks of him as already the 
hero of many early ballads, while Conde and Gayangos find the 
Arabic authors tallying exactly with the Spanish in dates and 
facts. The type of the Cid is Oriental, and Biblical history 
abounds in parallel chiefs who raised themselves to power; such 
were Jephthah, Rezin, David, etc. And as the latter was per- 
secuted by Saul, so the Cid was by Alonzo ; and both were 
compelled to carve out their fortunes with their own good 
sword ; and in Spain has a Sertorius, a Hafssun, a Cid, wanted 
gallant followers. So in our times the Minas, Zumalacarreguis, 
and other leaders of guerillas or " little wars" in which Spani- 
ards shine the best, have enacted deeds which only require the 
distance of centuries to appear almost equally fabulous. Nie- 
buhr, the decided sceptic of old history, considers the Cid to be 
a real character, and cites his ballad memoirs, as early instances 
of records based on truth, yet hovering on the verge of fabulous 
times. Masdeu, however, thought fit to doubt his very exis- 
tence, from a pique and spirit of opposition against Florence 
and Risco, his rival antiquarians ; and in our times Dr. Dun- 
ham, in Dr. Lardner's cyclopedia compilation, has repeated 
these Patranas. 

The Cid, out of favor at court, and thrown on his own re- 
sources, assembled an army of bold adventurers, and captured 
Yalencia, where he ruled on his own account, and died in 1099. 
His body was then brought to Cardefia, mounted on Babieca, 
and was placed armed on a throne, with Tizona, " the sparkling 



HIGHEST POINT IN SPAIN. 109 

brand " in his hand, with which, according to legends, he soon 
knocked down a Jew, whose valor plucked the dead lion by 
the beard. Ximena, his widow, in order to keep him quiet, 
had him then put under ground. The still existing tomb was 
raised in 12*72, by Alonso el Sabio, who composed the now 
scarcely legible epitaph — 

Belliger, invictus, famosus marte triumphis, 
Clauditur hoc tumulo magnus Didaci Rodericus. 

ARANDA, 

On the next morning after leaving Burgos we reached 
Aravida, on the Duero, amid its vineyards, and its picturesque, 
overhanging and balconied houses, having crossed this poplar- 
fringed river by a good bridge. Now ascending into a hideous 
country, but rich, however, in corn and wine, we attained the 
top of the monument placed on the dorsal ridge which divides 
the two Castiles. This pass, or puerto, over the Somo-sierra is 
the natural gate and defence of Madrid. Dreary then becomes 
the face of nature at this height, displaying the loftiest point 
of land in Spain, where a fountain of limpid water, gushing 
through a soil of a ferruginous nature, bore refreshment to our 
parched lips. To-day we acquired some knowledge of the pecu- 
liar table-lands of this country, and from Somo-sierra the road, 
by alternate stages of ascent and descent, inclined towards Mad- 
rid. By a series of plateaux or steppes, vast plains extend at the 
base of these mountains, from whose tops you catch magnificent 
views over the undulating surfaces of the plain which run at 
their feet. At one time the land is indented with rugged 
mountains, wearing an aspect of primeval grandeur; at ano- 
ther it flows with undulation like those of a sea, or again 



110 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

abounds with indications of the presence of silver in the quartz 
formations. Occasionally a miserable village dots the plain, 
but the general aspect is dreary and desolate beyond descrip- 
tion. The wilderness seems to have stretched its rugged 
wastes even to the walls of the capital. The heat, in summer, is 
terrific ; green, as a color, and water, as a liquid, were curiosities. 
It is just the place to send a patient afflicted with the hydro- 
phobia. However, at Lozoyuela, where the spurs of the 
Somosierra and range commence, the climate is cooler; the 
peasants, now few and poor, are clad in pano pardo, their 
waistcoats are cut open at the chest, and they wear montegas, 
as in La Mancha, their women, on holidays, put on picturesque 
bodices, laced in front; and their children are swathed up like 
mummies. 

St. Augustin, although among the last stages to a city which 
its towns-folk consider to be the first stage to heaven, is no 
Civitas Dei of the ancient father, whose name it bears. This 
wretched place has never recovered from the illusage of the 
French after Dupont's defeat at Bailen. The whole line of 
road to Burgos was then ravaged; " harvests of wheat were 
eaten up, and the fenced cities impoverished;" nothing escaped 
them, for they robbed even beggars, and those Spanish beg- 
gars. 

Every approach to the capital is barren, and the desert sur- 
rounds the mud walls of the city, where Madrid sits as the 
"lone mother of dead lands," empress of all Spain, somewhat 
like the isolated heart of a funereal urn, but still praised and 
lauded by every Castilian — Porque es Castellafta y viega y 
leal and, que hay que un Madrid. Happy the man who can 
sleep, the dislocating ruts permitting, from Burgos to Madrid. 



CITY OF PARADISE. Ill 



MADRID. 

Madrid, according to the Spanish official Guia, or Guide 
Book of 1845, is more ancient in its origin and a nobler city 
than Rome. In 1582, when surrounded by forests, it is 
described by Argote, as " buen monte de puerco y oso" a good 
cover for boars and bears, on account of which it was made a 
royal hunting residence. Civilization may have advanced, under 
the reign of the gouty and phlegmatic Charles V., but the gross 
mistake of a position which has no single advantage, except 
the fancied geographical merit of being in the centre of Spain, 
will never be corrected. Had Phillip II. availed himself of 
his opportunity of making his capital at Lisbon, Portugal 
never would have revolted, or the Peninsula been thus dis- 
severed, by which the first blow was dealt to Spain's greatness. 
Thus to Madrid, and its monkish ulcer, the Escurial, is the 
germ of her present decay to be traced. The boars still linger 
on the city's arm-shield, and the peasant boor of the provinces, 
and the fiscanciers of the capital, still indicate the presence of 
the original "boars and bears" of its infant state. 

The town is built on several mangy hills that hang over the 
river Manzanares: 

" Quien no ha visto Madrid, 
No ha visto un maravid." 

The towns-people think Madrid "the envy and admiration" 
of mankind; they talk of it as the capital of Spain, i. e. the 
world, for Quien dice Espafia dice todo. There is but one 
Madrid, No hay sino un Madrid; unique, like the phoenix, it is 
the only court on earth, solo Madrid es carte. Wherever it is 



112 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

mentioned the world is silent with awe, Donde est a Madrid calk 
el mundo. There is but one stage from Madrid to la Gloria, 
or Paradise, in which there is a window for angels to look down 
on this counterpart of heaven on earth. The reason why there 
are no country seats in the vicinity, is seriously accounted for, 
because no sane person could ever be found to quit this home 
of supernatural enjoyment even for one day. The greatest of 
punishments to the grandees, is to be banished to their distant 
estates from la Corte. This term conveys to Spanish ears, a 
meaning which cannot be translated in English. It is like La 
Cour de Louis XIY., the residence of the Sultan, the dispenser 
of rank and fortune; it is the centre of empefios, jobs, in- 
trigues, titles, decorations, and plunder, to which flock the 
vulture tribe of place-hunters, and pretendientes, who under this 
sun, breed like maggots in carrion; yet, as a court it is, and 
was at all times, a poor representation of real grandeur. The 
desert comes up to the ignoble mud-walls, the mesones are inns 
for beasts, the peasant who scratches the fields beyond them, 
is a barbarian, while inside live the worst populacho of the 
Peninsula. 

Madrid is not even a city or Ciudad, but only the chief of 
villas. It has no cathedral, no bishop ; it rises with a cluster 
of conical, blue, Flemish-looking spires. It has no lack of fine 
titles ; the abbreviations of its style are usually thus expressed 
by letter— La M. 1ST. M. L. I. C. y M. H. villa y Corte de M., 
which signify La muy nolle, leal, Imperial coronada, y may hercica 
villa y corte de Madrid. Built chiefly by Philips III. IV., and 
Charles II., and perfected under the foreigner, nowhere has the 
vile Churrigueresque and Rococo of Louis XIY. been carried 
to greater excesses. The churches, whitened sepulchres, are sad 
specimens of an insatiable greediness for tinsel : Charles III., 



LACK OF HOSPITALITY. 113 



who wished to be the Augustus of Madrid, unfortunately- 
worked in brick. The best houses are lofty, and different 
families live on different floors or flats, having the staircase in 
common ; each apartment is protected by a solid door, an 
"oak," in which there is generally a small wicket, from which 
the suspicious inmates inspect visitors before they let them in. 
The interiors, according to our notions, are uncomfortable and 
unfurnished ; the kitchen, offices, and other necessaries are on 
the most continental scale. 

Our extended dinner society is all but unknown, except in 
the houses of the diplomatic corps, and some few of the nobles, 
The grandees dine, indeed, with the foreign ministers, but with 
little reciprocity ; like the JPrincipes of modern Rome, they sel- 
dom offer in return even a glass of water : their hospitality 
consists in dining with any foreigner who will ask them. 

Few foreigners enjoy much health of mind or body in this 
unsocial, insalubrious city ; nor can foreign plenipotentiaries 
ever hope for much satisfactory dealing with a stiff-necked, 
unbusiness-like government, that imputes to its innate majesty 
and real power, a position which, like that of Turkey or Portu- 
gal, is almost upheld by the forbearance, protection, or mutual 
jealousies of other and more powerful countries. The Madrid 
officials have always behaved cavalierly towards foreign agents. 
The Spanish man in office, like the cuttle-fish, surrounds himself 
for protection in an obfuscation of papers : protocol succeeds to 
protocol, expedient e to document o, until the minister and matter 
both die a natural death from sheer exhaustion. Thus, this is a 
city in which a lengthened residence withers mind and body ; 
and well might Gongora exclaim, Este es Madrid, mejor dijera 
infierno ! 

The aggregate character of the mixed population of Madrid, 



114 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

which is about 210,000, is marked by an assumption of a 
metropolitan and courtier tone of superiority, an aping of the 
foreigner, an affectation of despising provincial towns and 
manners, a departure from national costume, and an insincere 
frivolity, the result of the false intrigues which are carried 
around on all sides. The females are by no means so attrac- 
tive, either morally or physically, as those of Yalencia and 
Andalusia; they want also much of that natural light-hearted 
frankness and absence of art which is the Spanish woman's 
charm. Like the men, they are more gazm,ona$, or hypocrites; 
the populacho, male and female, is brutal and corrupted; the 
Manolo or Manola, (words which are abbreviations of Manuel 
and Manuela) are the Majos y Majas of Madrid, but they are 
fast diminishing. 

This court, since the death of Ferdinand YIL, has been 
much improved. There is a trifle more life and movement in the 
streets, some of which are better cleaned, paved, and lighted; 
many of the old names have been changed for democratic and 
patriotic appellations. The destruction of convents has opened 
spaces, and new buildings are erecting everywhere. This has 
been aided by the reform of the municipal corporation. For- 
merly the large revenues were either jobbed and robbed among 
the members, or wasted in an extensive present to the king; 
now the funds are destined to local improvements. 

The best points for a panoramic view are from the top of the 
Santa Gruz church tower, or from the mound of the head of 
the Bum Retiro gardens. In shape the town is almost a 
square with the corners rounded off. Avenues of trees are 
planted outside the mud-walls, and in the principal approaches 
on the river side. Madrid will most please those who have 
hurried into Spain from France, therefore, the costume, Prado, 



ORIENTAL TYPES. 115 



and bull-fight, will strike with all the £ harm of novelty and 
strangeness of contrast, which will be wanting to those who 
arrive from beautiful Yalencia, Moorish Grenada, or stately 
Seville. A couple of weeks suffice to see the marvels, of which 
the Museos are indeed among the finest in Europe, and the best 
periods are May and June, September and October. Generally 
speaking, the more Madrid is known, the less it will be liked — 

" Quien te quiere, no te sabe ; 
Quien te sabe, no te quiere." 

After all, the least interesting part of Spain, is this city. 
There are, however, certain things worthy to be seen in it, 
which are peculiar to her, nor can they be found anywhere else 
in Europe. Much that would otherwise be remarkable or sur- 
prising, becomes accountably clear and understood, when it is 
adjudged according to its oriental type. The long usurpation 
of the Moors or Arabs, has left the vestiges of their presence 
still visible on the institutions and customs of the country. 
Many of the terms of the Spanish language, betray their origin 
from the Arabic, while several of the customs of the people, 
and the prevailing order of the architecture, clearly show the 
traces of the African conquest. The bull-fight, the grandest 
spectacle and pageant of Spain, is decidedly of a Moorish cast, 
and I found myself well prepared to visit this land, by having 
first traveled through the regions of the Turk and Arabs. 

Quite late in the evening of the third night, after we had left 
Bayonne, we were trundled into the court-yard of the Fonda de 
las Diligencias; we had exercised our imagination for the last 
three hours, during which we were riding in the dark, by the 
illuminating rays of the last fires of our little cigarillas, which 
burned with ceaseless activity, until we were drawn through 



116 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

the badly-lighted streets of Madrid, and there the lamps shed a 
brilliant lustre over the passing crowds of the capital, who were 
strolling about the streets, or returning from their walk on the 
Prado, while we were landed from our diligence, at the hotel 
situated in the Calk de Alcala, which is the chief rendezvous 
of the fraternity of the whip. 

STREET SIGHTS. 

Every body must begin with the Puerta del Sol, which, (like 
our City Hall,) is the centre of the capital, although once the 
east gate, on which the rising sun shone; now it has been built 
around on all sides, and the gate is gone, the name only 
remaining. The Puerta del Sol, is the heart where all the 
great arteries of circulation meet and diverge, the centre where 
the stream of Madrid life and the tide of affairs flow and ebb. 
Among those which run into this common head, is the street of 
the Alcala, which w r ould really have been a noble promenade, 
had it been built up with substantial houses, and not of the 
present meaningless looking piles, and ostentatious frontages of 
edifices, mere make-shifts and spiritless forms run up to flatter 
the royal eye, behind which are mean, ill-paved, ill-lighted, and 
ill-drained lanes. 

The shops on the streets which branch from the Puert del Sol 
are the most fashionable : their wares exposed to the eye speak 
for themselves. Although they cannot all be compared to ours, 
which burst with opulence into the streets, yet the rest of the 
Peninsula consider them to be the magazine of the universe : 
" You will get it at Madrid," says the shop-keeper of Toledo, 
Leon, Salamanca, etc., when asked by the foreigner for some 
article of commonest necessity. 



WARES AND FAIRS. 117 



Recently there is an improved show of commodities, espe- 
cially of French millinery and light goods ; but everything is 
a day behind the fair, and articles which are not of fashion, 
and will no longer sell beyond the Pyrenees, here figure as 
the last novelties of the season. The shops indicate a limited 
wealth ; but little is done in them on a really grand scale ; 
business is paltry and passive, and people walk about as if they 
had not much to do, still less to spend. The generality of 
native shop-keepers are without empressement or prevenance, 
and seem, like Orientals, to care little whether you buy of them 
or not. Madrid, placed in the centre of Spain, producing and 
supplying nothing, consumes everything, like an exhausting 
receiver ; and as all that enters comes from a distance, the 
expense is enhanced by transport and heavy duties. 

The makeshift poverty of Madrid is revealed during the Feria, 
or fair, which begins every September 21, and ends October 4. 
Then the contents of the houses are turned out of doors, and 
their nakedness exposed; then the only "Corte" becomes one 
brokers 7 alley, as every family that has anything to sell exhibits 
the article in the street. Occasionally a good book, picture, 
and old Toledan blade might be picked up ; but sad is the 
display — how many are anxious to sell, how few to buy. It is 
said by veteran fair-loungers that the same wares appear every 
year, just as floating rubbish in a mill-dam keeps coming up 
and down in one vicious circle ; the same results are evident in 
the Almonedas, or sales by private contract, and the auctions, 
Subastas, a term derived from the Roman Sub Hasta. 

The south-side of this Plaza is occupied by the Post-office ; 
adjoining it to the right, are the mail and post-horse estab- 
lishments, while at the east-side is the church Nuestra Senora, 
del buen Suceso, a paltry building with an illuminated clock. 



118 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

Here occurred that sad scene in the annals of Madrid, when 
Murat chose this church for one of the places of the butcheries 
of the Dos de Mayo, 1808. This clock, like that of "The Park," 
is the one by which those who value their time set their watches. 

Thus religion, letters, and locality, combine to render the 
Puerta del Sol, the real national Cortes, or congress, the site 
of meetings in the market-place, and the resort of quidnuncs and 
many who have nothing to do in a city without trade or 
industry, and who here begin and end their day : that day, 
which is indeed of small value, is thus wasted in a lazy routine, 
and doing that business which the evil one provides for 
the idle. 

Here, therefore, all who wish to study character and costume 
will never lack subjects for pen or pencil; for the Madrilenian, 
like the ancient, lives out of doors, /oris, in the forum, and 
wisely prefers the cheerful sun to his own comfortless home, 
which has no fireside. All this is the classical and Oriental 
to ayopocaOoci of the Athenian, who did little else but " either 
tell or hear some new thing," as it is the vespertinum forum of 
the otiose Horace, who delighted to pick up the last bit of 
correct intelligence, " the ephemeral lie that does its business in 
a day and dies." " Accordingly, the Spaniard takes up a 
position on this forum of the Puerta del Sol, cloaked like a 
Roman, while a cigar and the Gazeta indicate modern civiliza- 
tion, and soothe him with empty vapor. 

The blind are here the usual itinerant vendors of the broad 
sheet, " second editions," lying bulletins, and flying handbills, 
Boktines y hojas volantes. Indeed, it is quite a proverb to say 
of one whose vision is going, Esta ya para ir a vender gazetas ; 
and the blind are the fit guides of those stone blind who believe 
in the romances which are printed and circulated in this heart 



GOSSIP AND BUZZ. 119 



and brain of Madrid. And who can doubt the authority of the 
religio loci, the Puerta del Soil Quis solem dicere falsum 
audeat ? Xor can it be denied, in spite of the clouds of cigars, 
smoke, and lies, that the shrewd people do, somehow or other, 
arrive at some truth at last. 

Observe the singular groups of sallow, unshorn, hungry, 
bandit-looking men, with fierce, flashing eyes, and thread-bare 
shorn capas, which cluster like bees round the reader of some 
" authentic letter." These form two of the three classes into 
which a large portion of all who wear long-tailed coats may 
be divided. 

The Pretendientes or place-hunters, y Cesantes or the turned- 
out of office, polish the pavement of the Puerta del Sol, with 
the restlessness of caged wild beasts, for this is the den of the 
JEmpko-maniacos, the victims of that madness for place which is 
the peculiar disease of Madrid; they are the buzzers about 
of " Reports of the best informed circles," from the fiery treason 
to the chilling whisper, the susurro the se dice en el pueblo, the 
personal abuse, the envenomed calumny, the plausible insinua- 
tion ; and all this, either dignified by the splendid phraseology 
of the Castilian idiom, or enlivened by the mocking satire, 
cutting sarcasm, and epigrammatic wit, in which the dramatic, 
semi-comic Spaniards have few rivals. 

The interjections " Es falso" "mentira" " mientes" are in 
every one's mouth; nor is this giving the lie, which in honest 
England is the deadly insult, often resented. This Asiatic 
Doblez (the Italian Furleria,) or duplicity, is the more 
deceptive because it is accompanied by a grave, high-bred 
manner, and plausible, apparent frankness, which seems honesty 
itself, and is quite edifying to those who do not know this strange 
Oriental people; but, as the Duke said, who was truth person- 



120 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

ified, "It is difficult to understand Spaniards correctly, they 
are such a mixture of low intrigue coupled with extreme 
haughtiness of manner." ("Disp." Dec. 13, 1810.) 

The Puerta del Sol is the haunt of beggars, and theatre of 
rifas, or raffle lotteries. Sometimes the prizes are trinkets for 
the fair sex, pictures of saints, a fat pig, or broad ounces of red 
gold. The dandies, and Broadway loungers resort, in conse- 
quence of this low life, to the tiendas de quincalla in the Calle de 
la Montera; next we enter the Calls de Alcalde which is one of 
the finest streets in Europe, being placed on a gentle slope, and 
with just curve enough to be graceful. The great aorta widens 
like a river, disemboguing its living streams into the Prado. 
The perfect effect is destroyed by the lowness of some of the 
houses, which are not in proportion to the width which they 
fringe; but the glare in summer is terrific, and Espartero 
deserves well for having planted the acacias. Meanwhile, the 
chill blasts from the snow-capt Guadarrama, piercing the cross- 
streets, blow out the brief taper of Madrilenian life. 

The first edifice to the left, is the fine quadrilong former 
Aduana, or custom-house, built in 1769 for Charles III. The 
east and west fronts are ignoble, but the fagade to the street is 
handsome; the shield and Famas are by Michel, and add little 
to his fame; while the stone satyrs outside smile at the former 
farce of business done within, and the facilities afforded without 
to fraud. 

Adjoining, is the Royal Academy of San Fernando, a Bour- 
bon exotic, founded in 1744, when the French heroic mode in art, 
i. e. full-bottom wigs and Roman togas, was all the vogue ; it 
was removed here in 1744. Attached to the Museo is a collec- 
tion of natural history; but vainly did Charles III. inscribe 
over the portal that this was to be the lodging of art and 



HOT-BED OF JOBS. 121 



nature under one and the same roof ; the royal academicians, 
second-rate imitators of other mens 7 works, not of Xature, have 
effectually barred the banns. This establishment has too often 
been the hot-bed of jobs, and the nurse of mediocrity. Founded 
ostensibly with a view of restoring expiring art, it was called in 
too late; nor was it a humane society which could resuscitate a 
really and not apparantly dead patient. It came rather to 
smother the last spark of nationality, then proceeded to " hoist 
signals of art in distress," by hanging up its copied inanities as 
proudly as an undertaker puts up a hatchment. It has never 
created even a tolerable artist. 

There are some good things in the Royal Academy, by 
Ribera and Moya; observe in the first saloon, " a Christ cruci- 
fied;" and "a Christ in purple," by Alonso Cano; "a Christ 
before Pilate," by Morales. The grand Murillo is called "El 
Tihoso," in which Santa Isabel, of Hungary, is applying 
remedies to the scabby head of a pauper urchin; she is full of 
tenderness, but the sores are too truly painted to be agreeable, 
for they recall the critique of Pliny, (xxxiv. 9,) on a similar 
picture of Leontinus, cujus hulceris dolorem sentire etiam spec- 
tantes videntur; but her saint-like charity ennobles these 
horrors, which her woman's eye dares not look on, but her 
royal hand does not refuse to heal, and how gently; her beau- 
tiful, almost divine, head, contrasts with that of the beggar hag 
in the foreground. This noble picture was carried off from La, 
Caridad, of which, in subject, it was the appropriate gem for 
the Louvre; but Waterloo restored it to Spain, if not to the 
fair Bastis. 

In the second saloon, are two superb Murillos, also taken by 
Soult from Santa Maria la JBlanca, at Seville, also sent 
to Paris, and rescued, like Santa Isabel. These glorious pic- 



122 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 



tures represent the legend of the dream of el Patricio Romano, 
which preceded the building of the Santa Maria la Mayor, at 
Home, under Pope Liberius, about the year 360; they are 
semi-circular in shape, to fit the gaps still visible at Seville. 
The Dream, the best of the two, is an exquisite repre- 
sentation of the sentiment sleep. The Roman Senator is 
dressed like a Spanish hidalgo, for the localism and Espano- 
lismo of Murillo scorned even to borrow costume from the 
foreigner ; the patrician has quite a Shakspere look : he is 
fast asleep at his siesta, and no wonder, since he holds a large 
book, [ley a xaxov, and an undoubted soporific. The Yirgin, in the 
air, points out the site of the future church. The companion 
picture, where the dreamer explains his vision to the pontiff, is 
painted in the vapor oso style : the distant procession is admirable. 

In the second floor is the Gabinette de Ciencas naturales. 

The specimens of marbles are splendid, and show what trea- 
sures yet remain buried in the Peninsula; the ledges of the 
cabinets are lined with the choicest varieties. Observe the 
Verde Antique from el Barranco de San Juan, near Granada; 
brown jaspers, from Lanjaron ; agates, from Aracena ; crystal- 
lized sulphurs, from Conil ; lead ores of every tint, from the 
Sierra de Gador ; copper, from Rio tinto ; the celebrated 
lump of virgin gold, from the Sonora mine, weighing 16| lbs., 
has recently been stolen, no mineralogical knowledge being 
necessary to discover its value ; there remains, however, a 
virgin mass of silver, of 250 lbs.; one of copper, of 200 lbs. 
The grand object of the Spanish gypsies, is the large loadstone 
La Piedra Iman, and they are always plotting how to steal 
this Bar Lachi, which they believe to be a love-philtre and a 
talisman against policemen, excise officers, and the devil. 

Having fully recovered from the fatigues of our wearisome 



THE FANCY. 123 



journey to the capital, we, of course, enjoyed the many attrac- 
tive objects which had met our regard during the stroll of this 
day. After dining at the Fonda, I again started out, with my 
expectations highly excited by the announcement of a bull- 
fight, which was to take place at the circus, outside the gates. 
I had first provided myself with a ticket for the shady side of 
the Plaza, and proceeded with the crowd that was moving in 
the streets, until, at about five o'clock, I found myself posted 
between the Calle de Alcala and the Plaza, waiting full half an 
hour before the doors opened, to see the arrival of the mob. 

Kow, indeed, we are in Spain, and no mistake, and it is a 
Monday afternoon, and we have already become one of the 
aficionado — the fancy — for we are going to a Bull-fight. 

How the stately gait of the proud Castilian passes into the 
hurried race of the ignoble plebian. The main street was 
full of people moving onward in the direction of the spectacle. 
What a din and dust, what costumes and cdlesas ; what wild 
owners running outside, what picturesque manolos and monolas 
inside the carriages which follow those conveying the picadores 
and other supernumeraries to the games. How coquettishly 
these bright orbs of the majas twinkle to the stranger, as they 
look so slyly up from under their mantillas, into the eyes of 
their fancifully dressed majas, as they trip briskly along, moving 
in the tide which now swells with impatience and anxiety under 
the porches of the gate of Alcala. 



THE BULL-FIGHT. 

At six o'clock the immense amphitheatre of the Plaza de 
Toros, capable of holding 12,000 spectators, is filled with 
the highest and lowest of Spanish blood. Architecturally they 



124 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

are shabby places, but the bull-fights are first-rate at Madrid, 
and the toros for this Plaza come from the pastures of the 
Jarama. That breed was famous even among the Moors, 
as every aficionado — fancy man — will read in the splendid 
description of one in GazuVs ballad — 

" Estando toda la Corta." 

At six, precisely, not a vacant seat was to be found in that vast 
circumference of 1,100 feet. At the hour appointed, the arena 
is cleared, and the signal for the commencement of the games is 
given. The alquazils retire through the passage by which they 
had entered. The procession of the actors, on this occasion, 
consisting of the chulos and picadores, preceded by the Master 
of the Ceremonies, march up to the seat of the President, who, 
in the absence of the Queen, as the representative of royalty, is 
seated in the Throne Box, and having made due and loyal 
obeisance to the Royal Arms, withdraw to resume their proper 
stations in the circle. The President then throws the key of 
the bull-pit to the Master, and the game begins. The chulos 
stand in position to the right, and the picadores on a line to 
the left of the passage by which the bull is about to enter, 
after the brief ceremonies of their presentation to the city 
authorities. Both these parties axe dressed in their most 
picturesque and gay habiliments, with their dresses, like 
Figaro's, in the opera of the Barber of Seville, most splendidly 
embroidered in silk and gold. The picadores are the antag- 
onists of the animal until the last stage of the combat. The 
chulos carry each a scarf of a brilliant color, by which they 
attract the attention of the bull, and draw him off when any of 
the picadores are in danger. A long, stout spear, with a blunt 
end, leaving only about an inch of a sharp pointed spike 



BULL SPECTACLE. 125 



projecting, is the only weapon of the picador 1 who is mounted 
on a miserably lean and broken-down horse, with his legs and 
thighs encased in thick plates of cork to protect him against 
the horns of the bull. If the picador is sometimes thrown, he 
is seldom hurt — only a little bruised, perhaps, or a sprained 
ancle occasionally, — for he is in very little danger, every care 
being taken of his life, but none of that of the poor horses. 
These are bought up for five or ten dollars, expressly to 
be killed. Some are so thin and weak that they are hardly 
able to carry their riders to the pit-ring, and are almost always 
overthrown, with their riders, in every encounter with the 
bull. 

These wretched horses are made more forlorn by being 
blindfolded, and are completely passive at every attack of the 
enraged beast. In the days of the Moors the finest horses were 
employed, and the game was more spirited, and the skill of the 
rider was aided by the sagacity and fleet foot of the animal 
that bore him. Now it is a degenerate spectacle with all the 
cruelty of the ancients, without a particle of its chivalry, at 
least so says Senator Dix in his " Summer in Spain." 

From the burden of our notes we find a description of our 
own, speaking of this spectacle in less elegant but more concise 
language. 

Everything being ready, and all eyes fixed upon the point of 
entrance, a noble bull, lately from the pastures of the Jarama, 
plunged wildly into the pit. This beast seemed lost amid the 
multitude gazing upon him, and as he rushed madly around the 
circle, stopped to view the crowd, and seemed imploringly to 
seek for aid or pity from those who had assembled to wit- 
ness his butchery. The first one was hardly game, and the 
hisses of the populace, mingled with cries of disappointment, 



126 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

caused the picadores to advance upon the stupid animal. A 
thrust from the blunted lance roused the bull from his bewil- 
dered state, and he turned savagely round upon his attacker, 
and with a furious lunge buried his horns deeply in the sides 
of the emaciated horse, with a force that upset both the rider 
and his steed, while he stood still goring the fallen animal until 
the nimble ckulos, running around the scene of the overthrow, 
succeeded in drawing off the attention of the enraged bull, by 
flinging scarfs of various colors before his eyes. 

A fresh horse was then brought in, and the first picador 
being scathed, a new one is mounted, who, in turn, makes a 
fresh and vigorous charge on the bull. The animal, now 
worried and incited by continued taunts, ran with a rapid pace 
towards his torturers, driving them before him until he forced 
them to jump over the palisades that marked the interval 
between the ring and the spectators. Yindictive now against 
his tormentors, the maddened victim overleaped the barriers 
of the fences ; then wildly the shrieks of the women rang round 
the point of his assault, and fearfully scampered the occupants 
of the adjoining places, until the animal had been attracted 
again within the arena by the trainers and their attendants. 
This was indeed sport for the aficionados; the fancy hurrahed 
and applauded him as game, while bets ran high on the bulls 
of Jarama. 

Again the picadores assault the hero of the amphitheatre, 
thrusting their lances longly and heavily against his haunches, 
and in turn the bull tosses his head and gores his opponent, 
while chulos move about the ring flaunting their scarfs before 
his eyes, until the oandilhros come in with feathered arrows, 
decked with party-colored ribbons, and fling them with dex- 
terous skill, fairly into the neck of the weithing beast. Thus, 



A BLOODY GAME. 127 



increased agony is added to the injury already done, his rage 
mounts as the mordant barbs rankle in their wounds, and he 
raves with the fury of a stricken giant, sending his piteous 
moans in hideous strains, tossing his horns in wild despair, and 
tearing the ground beneath with his convulsive fore feet; paw- 
ing and groaning, as if the soul of the tortured brute, was 
craving vengeance on his murderers. Xow, at this point, when 
his madness is at its height, and the summit of demoniac inven- 
tion racked to the extreme limit of cruelty, the matador enters 
. — the proper dandy of the turf — dressed with all the finery of 
a Spanish bridegroom, wearing his fearful dagger under the 
brilliant curtain of a scarlet cloak. His purpose is to draw the 
bull on to the folds of his red shawl. The animal, now in the 
fullness of his ire, his eyes flashing with a blood-stained fire, 
and head almost crazed by a sight of the bloody cloak, rushes 
wildly and blindly on to the insidious bait, and as he gathers 
all his energies for the last fearful onset on his persecutor, the 
matador nimbly turns from the pursuit, and eluding his victim 
by a spry turn to the left, with a skillful and well-aimed blow, 
thrusts his weapon and buries its blade deeply in the neck 
of the desperate and deluded monster. The bull staggers, and 
with a few spasmodic struggles, he sinks, lowers, himself by the 
shortening of his forelegs, tumbles, rolls over heavily, falls- — 
then — dies, and the game is over ; and while the huzzas of the 
excited population rung through the air, motley caparisoned 
mules are led in to drag the victim from the arena, and then 
the crowd retires, amid the illuminations of ten thousand fans, 
which are wantonly burned at this inhuman sacrifice, to the 
thirst of human passions. A poor spectacle indeed for a 
nation, whose pride claims for them a title of nobility. Blood- 
thirstiness and cruelty, are a refinement to the proud there! A 



128 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

disgusting spectacle — a barbarous, shocking cruelty, we term it, 
which must necessarily tend to harden the best feelings of hu- 
manity, and is outrageous to every sentiment of gentleness and 
delicacy, which should adorn that softer sex who sat among the 
number of its admirers and approvers, sanctioning and encourag- 
ing this act of vandalism and brutality by their presence and their 
smiles. Gracious Heaven! is this the climax of their holydays? 
Are we in Spain ? Is this the age of reason ? Is it possible 
that even the Turks and the Arabs, exercise the law of charity 
towards beasts, and that Spain, with Isabel for a Queen, " a 
woman regnante" — loyal Catholic Spain — the country of the 
once most proud and hearty of earth's kingdoms, alone offers 
such horrors for the amusement of her people ? We shudder 
and tremble, even as we write it. 

The second morning after our arrival was spent in the street, 
near the Plaza del Carmen, while we were amused in viewing 
the different groups of people that were engaged in vending 
their merchandise at the fruit market. There I saw several 
scenes of beggar-boys of that ragged school, or sans culottes 
order, so often painted by Murillo, who were playing cards at 
the corners of the streets in the same peculiar postures and 
groupings which are so well represented in the engravings of 
his master-pieces. Crossing over by the Puerta del Sol we 
again entered the street of Alcala, and followed it to the planted 
and public walks which ran at the end, where the Prado opens 
to the right. 

Continuing our walk we reached the Puerta de Alcala. It is 
the finest gate in Madrid, being merely ornamental ; for the 
walls, a mean girdle to the " only court," are of mud, and 
might be jumped over by a tolerably active Remus ; but they 
were never intended for defence against any invaders except 



SALOON WALKS. 129 



smuggled cigars ; yet, although they might be battered down 
with garbanzos, this architectural ornament was mutilated by 
the French, whose sportive cannon-balls were especially directed 
at it ; Te saxa loquuntur. 

THE PRADO. 

Opposite to the Plaza de Toros and to the left of this gate, 
are the gardens of the Buen Retero, and their gate, la Gloricta. 
Returning to the Prado, the view is very striking. The Prado, 
a name familiar to all, is the Prater, the Hyde-park of Madrid; 
here, on winter days, from three to five, and summer evenings 
from eight to twelve, all the rank, beauty, and fashion appear. 

The Prado " the meadow," in the time of Philip IV. was a 
wooded dip renowned for murder and intrigue, political and 
amatory. It was leveled and planted by the Conde de Aranda, 
under Charles III., and laid out by Jose Hermonsilla in garden 
walks : the length, from the Atocha convent to the Portillo 
de Recoletos, is 9650 feet ; the most frequented portion, " el 
Salon," extends from the Calle de Alcala to the Calle de San 
Jeronimo, and is 1450 feet long by 200 wide. The Salon ter- 
minates with the fountain of Neptune, sculptured by one Juan 
de Mena. Of the seven other fountains those of Apollo and 
Cybele are most admired; but these stony things are as nothing 
to the living groups of all age, color, and costume, which walk 
and talk, ogle and nod, or sit and smoke. The Prado, a truly 
Spanish thing and scene, is unique ; and as there is nothing like 
it in Europe, and oh, wonder ! as there are no English on it, 
it fascinates all who pass the Pyrenees. Its eternal sameness is 
lost to the guest who tarries but a week, while, to the native, 
custom does not stale, nay, the very sameness has a charm 



130 i TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

among a people who hate innovations. The company is most 
observant of forms and ceremonies, and strictly decent in ap- 
pearances., and in all that the correct French call les convenances; 
nothing here, or indeed anywhere in Spain, offends the public 
eye. The Prado is a noisy, dusty scene, and to all but the 
natives is but a poor thing after all : as no grass, no continental 
apology for English lawn grows on this so-called meadow, a 
modest misnomer after the fashion of Les Champs .Ely sees of 
Parisian paradise. No flowers enamel this Prado, save those 
offered by impertinent daughters of Flora. Fire and water, 
Candela, Fuego ! y quien quiere agua ? resound on every side : 
Murillo-like urchins run about with lighted rope-ends for 
smokers, i. e. for ninety-nine out of one hundred males, while 
Aguadores follow the fire, like engines, with fresh water, for 
your Spaniard is as adust as his soil, and thirsty as Vesuvius. 

Strange as the Prado still appears, it is sadly fallen off from 
the good old times before the fatal invasion and the nuevo 
progreso; every afternoon the march of transpyrenean intellect 
and civilization is crushing some national costume and custom. 
Buonaparte never inflicted more injuries to Spanish man than 
"your little French milliner" or modista has done to the 
daughter of the say a y mantilla. 

On the Prado, the mirror of Madrid, will be seen the influ- 
ence of the foreigner, for whom in words the Spanish profess 
such contempt, but whose deeds are indeed at variance with the 
boast of every mouth, u Los Espanoles sobre todosP Here 
they do their best to denationalize themselves, and to destroy 
with suicidal hand their greatest merit, which is the being 
Spanish ; for Spain's best attractions are those which are cha- 
racteristic of herself. The Roman toga, the capa, is giving way to 
the English paletot, and the graceful veil, the mantilla, to Boule- 



RUSE DE FORCE. 131 



yard bonnets. Here all that is imitated is poor and second- 
rate, and displeases the foreigner, who can see the originals 
much better at home ; hence the never-failing interest which the 
lower classes present. They, by continuing to be national and 
out-and-out Spanish, are always racy and respectable, and, so 
far from being ridiculous, like the better classes, are the delight 
and admiration of the rest of the world. The Prado, as it 
approaches the Plaza de Atocha, becomes more umbrageous 
and quiet. This is the favorite site of bores, lovers, and but- 
ton-holders. 

Advancing to the left, is the simple pyramklical monument 
of the Dos de Mayo, raised to the manes of the victims of 
Murat, on what is called el Campo de la Lealdad — the Field of 
Loyalty. It was begun in 1814, by the Cortes, but was stopped 
by Ferdinand TIL, in whose eyes the senators and heroes of 
the war of independence found no favor, because of their reform- 
ing tendencies. Here the Castilian Leon puts his paw on the 
whole globe. The anniversary of the 2d of May, is cele- 
brated like the 5th of Xovember. The French consider this 
to be an affront, and offensive to their honur ; but the annual 
solemnity is a record and a warning, for the past is the prophet 
of the future. The bloody history is soon told. Murat arrived 
at Madrid, March 23, 1808, as a " friend;" but Buonaparte, 
whose Spanish policy was ruse doublee de force, wishing to 
strike a blow of terrorism, knew his instrument, as it was this 
man who, with Loison, had massacred the Parisians with grape- 
shot, October 5, 1195. The forced departure of the king's 
brothers was resented by the citizens; angry cries were heard, 
and the mob were sabred by the French. A truce was then 
agreed between the Spanish authorities and Murat, who pledged 
his honor to observe it; and then, the instant quiet was re- 



132 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

stored, seized old and young, lay and clergy, and on the next 
day constituted a military commission, headed by Grouchy, 
when hundreds were put to death on the Prado as being the 
most public place. But Murat only sought to intimidate: "La 
journee d'hier donne l'Espagne a l'Empereur," wrote he. Poor 
Franconi, fool ! that day lost even France to his master, while 
the fate of the two agents satisfied political justice. A ball at 
Pizzo, October 13, 1815, sent "k beau sabrcur" to his account, 
executed under the summary provisions of another of his own 
Draco enactments; and Grouchy is mixed up with the downfall 
of the prime mover of the tragedy. 

Buonaparte, when he discovered that terrorism had only ex- 
asperated all Spain, replaced his blundering executioner by 
S a vary, reeking from the murder of d'Enghien. This fit tool 
of his Machiavelism, soon managed to kidnap Ferdinand VII., 
who, when warned of the trap, refused, says even Foy, (iii. 
147,) to believe the project. " La seule idee d'une si horrible 
l^erfidie etait une injure a la grancle ame d'un Heros tel que 
Napoleon." 

The Spanish heroes of the Dos de Mayo, were named Jacinto 
Ruiz, Luis Daoiz, and Pedro Velarde. These officers of artil- 
lery refused to obey when ordered to surrender their cannon to 
the French: the two latter perished. The philosophy of the 
Spanish war of independence was Espanolismo, i. e. impatience 
under foreign dictation ; the conduct was accident, impulse of the 
moment, personal bravery, and contempt of discipline. Here 
three individuals, with only three cannon and ten cartridges, 
disobeyed orders, and dared to pit their weakness and want of 
preparation, against the strength of a most military and power- 
fully organized foe; they had nothing fixed, but their great 
courage, and greater hatred of the invader, and they repre- 



PLEASANT RETREAT. 133 



sented their countrymen at large. And although routed, be- 
cause exposed to unequal chances by their inexperienced chiefs, 
and left " wanting of everything in the critical moment," by 
their miserable juntas and governments ; yet thousands of 
Spaniards, prodigal of life as Moslems, rose to replace them in 
this holy war. The fugitives carried the sad details into the 
provinces, like blood summons of the East (Judg. xx. 6). The 
cross of fire passed from hand to hand, its sparks fell on a 
prepared train, which exploded throughout the land. The 
flame blazed out in an jEtna eruption, one heart in the bosoms 
of the masses, one cry, "Mueran los gavachos" — "Death to the 
miscreant French" — burst from every mouth. The honest 
people neither required "fanatic monks nor English gold" to 
rouse them, as the Buonapartists falsely stated; it was a 
national instinct: honor, therefore, eternal, is due to the brave 
and noble people of Spain. 

Turning now to the left, we entered the Buen Retiro. This 
large extent of ruined buildings and pretty gardens was laid 
out by the Conde Duque de Olivares, as a "pleasant retreat" for 
Philip IV., and in order to divert his attention from politics 
and his country's decay. Here was erected a palace and a 
theatre, in which the plays of Lope de Vega were acted; the 
former, however, was burnt by accideut, when many fine pic- 
tures by Titian and Velazquez perished. 

Walk now into the pleasant gardens, which owe their 
beauty to an English horticulturist, named Ward, and were 
turned into a wilderness by the French. Ferdinand VII. took 
a great interest in their restoration ; he replanted the trees 
which had been torn up by the destroyers ; he cleared out the 
large pond, el Estanque, on which he manoeuvred his swans 
and miniature fleet. He re-established an aviary and mena- 



134 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

gerie of wild beasts, las Fieras, which were favorite pets of his 
majesty. He also built Chinese pagodas, after the fashion of 
George IV., and somewhat more apposite, as being near la 
China, than on the bleak coast of Brighton. At the upper end 
of the gardens, is a mound with a sort of summer-house, called 
el Belvidere, and justly, as it commands a good panoramic view 
of Madrid. 

On another occasion, after having obtained an entre from 
Madrazo, the Director of the Royal Galleries, I visited the 
Mwseo, in company with Mr. le Conte Marzuzi de Aguirre, 
from the Rue Royale St. Honore 6 a Paris, as he described 
himself on his card. I am the more particular in giving this 
direction, from the fact, that he was the only companion I had 
during my stay at Madrid; and the society of a man of good 
family, excellent belles-lettres cultivation, and refined taste in 
art, is so agreeable in travel, that one scarcely knows any 
better mode of appreciating it, than by blazoning his praise 
to the world at large. 

THE NEW MUSEUM. 

On the outside of the Museum, is inscribed " Royal British 
Artillery, 1st September, 1812, A. Ramsay." 

What a page of history is condensed in that simple record 
of an English private soldier, who marched, after Salamanca, 
to the delivery of the Spanish capital ! 

The Museo is a huge, common-place edifice. The real 
history of the gallery is this. When Ferdinand married his 
second and best wife, La Portuguese one Monte Allegre, who 
had been a Spanish consul in France, persuaded him to refur- 
nish the palace with French papers, chandeliers, and ormolu 



HISTORY OF GALLERY. 135 

clocks — his particular fancy; thereupon the quaint, original, 
and cinque-cento furniture, much of which was of the period 
even of Charles Y. and Philip II., was carted out, and the 
pictures taken down, and stowed away in garrets and corridors, 
exposed to wind, weather, and plundering. They were fast 
perishing, when the Marques de Santa Cruz, Mayer Duomo, 
Mayor, or Lord Steward, and the Duque de Gor, persuaded 
the queen to remove them to the unused building on the Prado. 
She advanced £40 a month towards repairing a few rooms for 
their reception, and by November, 1819, three saloons were 
got ready, and 311 pictures exhibited to the public: the extra- 
ordinary quality of which, especially of Yelazquez, instantly 
attracted the admiring eye of foreigners, who appreciate the 
merits of the old masters of Spain much better than the 
natives. Ferdinand TIL; seeing that renown was to be 
obtained, now came forward with £240 a month, and the 
Museo was slowly advanced, one more saloon being opened in 
1821 : thus cheaply did he earn the title of an Augustus. 

No collection was ever begun or continued under greater 
advantages. Charles Y. and Philip II. ; both real patrons of 
art, were the leading sovereigns of Europe at the bright period 
of the Renaissance, when fine art was an every-day necessity, 
and pervaded every relation of life. Again, Philip IY. ruled 
at Naples and in the Low Countries, at the second restoration 
of art, which he truly loved for itself. These three monarchs, 
like Alexander the Great, took a pleasure in raising their 
painters to personal intimacy; and nowhere have artists been 
more highly honored than Titian, Yelazquez, and Rubens, in 
the palace of Madrid. At a later period, Philip Y., the grand- 
son of Louis XIY., added many pictures by the principal 
French artists of that, their Augustan age. 



136 



LACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 



While the Spanish kings patronized art at home, their vice- 
roys in Italy and the Low Countries collected and sent home 
the finest specimens of the great artists who flourished from 
Raphael down to the Carraccis and Claude ; these glorious 
gems, until the French invasion, were preserved pure as when 
they issued from the studios of their immortal authors. Spain 
was their last stronghold, for, left neglected in a dry conservative 
climate, even Time paused ere he could destroy such works of 
genius and beauty. Hence the pure undisturbed freshness, the 
adulterated surface, dirty and cold if you will, and often net 
even varnished, still not tampered with, but left just as they 
were when they received their last touches ; not things that 
were pictures, like the flayed Correggios at Dresden, or the 
French-repainted Raphaels. 

The invaders were the first to ravish and then defile these 
virgin pictures, and, what is worse, they set a bad example and 
taught lessons of corruption which have since been fearfully 
carried out. Those pictures which returned demoralized and 
denationalized, captivated with repainted glitter and varnished 
faces, the native authorities, who, now thinking the rest of their 
gallery dull-looking and out of fashion, preferred the rouge of 
a strumpet to the simple blush of a maiden. The Spanish 
director, Madrazo (? Madrasto), a pupil of David, proclaimed 
a guerra at cuchillo against the whole gallery. Picture after 
picture has been taken down and ruined. There is scarcely 
a pure Murillo left in the whole collection ; the work of havoc 
has gone on for twenty years, and is so still: whenever an 
empty frame bears the fatal sentence JEstd en la restauracicn, 
the condemned is placed en Capilla, and all hope is at an end. 
It is gone to a purgatory from whence there is no deliverance, 
no " indulgence :" the last penalty is enforced in underground 



CARPENTER CRITICISM. 137 



dissecting-rooms, where the familiars sweep away the lines 
where beauty lingered. Madrazo's chief executioners were 
Lopez, Pibera, Bueno, Serafin, De la Huerta, Garcia, etc. 
Alas for the fine arts ! thus flayed, scoured, and daubed over. 
The glazing and last half-tints were effaced, and much became 
raw and opaque which once was tender and transparent ; while 
new crude color was banado or spread on, until, in some cases, 
the outline only of the divine original is left. 

Of course, every traveler who is fond of art will buy the 
catalogue, which is sold at the door, both as a vade mecum on 
the spot, and as a library book at home. It is but a poor affair 
as a work of art; its author, the director Madrazo's chief 
object seems to have been to give the size of each picture, not 
the soul ! Possibly by this carpenter-criticism, he has endea- 
vored to give a merit of quantity versus quality to those acres 
of canvas on which he has labored in vain, and which here take 
up space to the exclusion of worthier things. We shall only 
point out some of the best pictures of each master, dwelling 
chiefly on the Spaniards, and for that purpose refer to the num- 
bers of the official catalogue. 

This, like most other Spanish Museos, is a creature of accident 
rather than of design. There is little order, scientific systematic 
arrangement, or classification ; there is no series of painters 
marking the chronology, either of art in general, or of any 
school in particular. It is wanting in specimens of Fra Barto- 
lomeo, Perugino, M. Angelo, Julio Romano, Ludovico Car- 
racci, Caravaggio, Carlo Dolci, etc. It is also deficient not 
only in the early Italian and German artists, but even the 
Spanish ; the splendid Yalencian and Seville schools (Murillo, 
Yelazquez, and Juanes excepted). Yet to give a general idea 
of its extraordinary contents, suffice it to say that there are 



138 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

27 Bassanos, 49 Breughels, 8 Alonso Canos, 10 Claudes, 22 
Vandykes, 16 Guidos, 55 by Luca Giordano, 13 by Antonio 
Moro, 46 by Murillo, 3 by Parmigianino, 21 by N. Poussin, 
10 by Raphael, 53 by Ribera, 62 by Reubens, 23 by Snyders, 
52 by Teniers, 43 by Titian, 27 by Tintoretto, 62 by Velaz- 
quez, 24 by Paul Veronese, 10 by Wouvermans, 14 by Zubaran. 
In truth, the fault is that it is too exceedingly rich, like wed- 
ding-cake : what house of thought and beauty, filled with 
spirits of past days ! Here time is arrested, and the dead 
reappear as in vision, yet of delight, not fear ! 

The galleries themselves are not well adapted for pictures, 
having been built for other purposes, but the servants under- 
stand opening and closing shutters, etc., so as to improve the 
lights. The rooms are simple ; no gewgaw ornaments distract 
the eye from the pictures, which here are as they ought to be, 
the objects. When we pass these crowded walls, it seems as if 
a year were too short to examine the contents : a too princely 
banquet is set before us, and we run the risk either of eating 
more than we can digest, or of becoming sated with excel- 
lence, and loathing the honeycomb : but we soon get fastidious, 
and the masses simplify themselves ; then the planets shine 
forth, and we reject the modern rubbish as by instinct. But 
of one thing, oh, beware ! — beware of any lassitude of the 
the beautiful ; be indeed weary of bores, fly the bad, eschew 
Madrazo, David, the devil and all his works ; but never, oh, 
never, risk the being tired of the fine and good. Picture-seeing 
is more fatiguing than people think, for one is standing all the 
while, and with the body the mind is also at exercise in judging, 
and is exhausted by admiration. Let, therefore, the visit be 
often and frequent ; take also one master at a time, as a know- 
ledge of his peculiarities is more likely to be fixed, than by 



HOMER OF PAINTING. 139 



mixing up many artists and subjects together, which fritters 
and distracts. 

The grand masters to observe are Raphael, Titian, Murillo, 
and still more Yelazquez, as the three former may be compre- 
hended equally as well at Rome, Hampton Court, Venice, and 
Seville ; but Madrid is the only home of the mighty Andalu- 
cian, for here is almost his entire work. 

Xow enter the saloon to the right. Here are the old Castel- 
lanos viejos y sin mancka, the old masters of Spain, good men 
and true, free from all infidel and foreign taint, but who now 
seem to be hung up here in terror em, as examples of what 
modern students should avoid ; for, if their directors are artists, 
then Murillo was a blockhead, and Yelazquez a dauber. 

jSow for Yelazquez, who here is to be seen in all his glory. 
Fortunately for Spain, Buonaparte's generals did not quite 
understand or appreciate his excellence, and few of his pictures 
were " transported." Again, from having been exclusively the 
court painter, his works were monopolized by his royal patron; 
and being in the palace of Joseph, were tolerably respected 
even by those who knew their mercantile value. Here, there- 
fore, alone, is he to be studied, in all his protean variety of 
power. Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Yelazquez, was born at 
Seville, in 1599, and died at Madrid, August 1, 1660. He is 
the Homer of the Spanish school, of which Murillo is the 
Yirgil. Simple, unaffected, and manly, he was emphatically a 
man, and the painter of men, and particularly those of lofty, 
stately Spain. In this he rivaled Timanthes, " artem ipsam 
complexus viros pingendi." — (Pliny, ' X. H.' xxxv. 10.) He 
was equally great in portrait, history, Sujets de Genre, and 
landskip; he passed at once, without effort or violence, into each, 
and into every variety of each, — from the epic to the farce, from 



140 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

low life to high, from the old to the young, from the rich to the 
poor, while he elevated portrait painting to the dignity of his- 
tory. He was less successful in delineations of female beauty, 
the ideal, and holy subjects; wherein he was inferior to Murillo. 
He could draw anything and everything he could see and 
touch, then he was master of his subject andjiever mastered by 
it; but he could not grapple with the unreal, or comprehend 
the invisible, immortal, and divine ; and whenever he attempted, 
which was seldom, any elevated compositions, the unpoetical 
models from which he studied in youth were always reproduced. 
Yet even in this style, prose if you please, but terse, nervous, 
and Thucydidean, there is no mistake, no doubt, and always so 
much humanity, truth to nature, and meaning, that we sympa- 
thise with transcripts of beings of living flesh and blood, like 
ourselves. No man, again, Titian not excepted, could draw 
the minds of men, or paint the very air we breathe, better than 
he : his color is clean and truthful, although subdued; to those 
accustomed to the glowing tints of Titian and Rubens, his 
tones appear at first to be cold, his greys almost green; his 
lineal and aerial perspective is magical; his mastery over his 
materials, his representation of texture, air, and individual 
identity, are absolutely startling. His touch was free and firm, 
uniting perfect precision with the greatest executional facility. 
He seems to have drawn on the canvas; for any sketches or 
previous studies on paper are never to be met with. "When at 
work, he always went directly to the point, knowing what 
he wanted, and when he had got it : he selected the salient 
features, and omitted the trivial; and as he never touched his 
canvas without an intention, or ever put one touch too much, 
his emphatic objects are always effective : again, his subdued 
tone and slight treatment of accessories, conferred a solidity 



BEAU-IDEAL OF LANDSKIP. 141 

and importance to his leading points, which are all thus 
brought up and tell. Having been employed by the king, and 
not by the usual patrons of art, the priest and monk, his 
pictures are less gloomy than those of Spanish artists who were 
depressed by the cold shadow of the Inquisition. For truth 
and life-conferring power he carries everything before him, and is 
far the greatest so-called naturalist school : hence the sympathy 
between him and our artists, of whose style he was the antici- 
pation; for similar causes must produce similar effects, allow- 
ances being made for the disturbing influence of a different 
religion, habits, and climate. 

Look, therefore, at every one of his pictures ; for, take them all 
in all, "we ne'er shall see their like again." Those to be 
peered into and analysed every day, are 81, the presumed 
portrait of Alonso Cano; great truth and force : 8t, C. L. St. 
Antonio and St. Paul Hermits. " In breadth," says Wilkie, 
"and richness unexampled, the beau ideal of landskip, not 
much detail or imitation, but the very same sun we see, and the 
air we breathe, the very soul and spirit of nature :" 109 and 
114, portraits of Philip IY. and his second wife, Maria of 
Austria : 11T, a masterly sketch, said to be of the Marques de 
Pescara, full of individual identity : 12T, C. N., portrait said to 
be of the corsair Barbaroja, a line, fierce old Turkish pirate : 
138, C. L., C. N., Los Bebedores or Los Borrachos ; this 
mock coronation of a drunken group, combines the humor 
of Teniers with the breadth and effect of Caravaggio. The 
actors may indeed be low in intellectual character, but not vul- 
gar, being true to the life ; and if deficient in elevated sentiment, 
are rich in meaning, and are transcripts of real man. 

Next observe 142, Philip IY. when aged; it is the indivi- 
dual himself, with the Austrian " foolish hanging of the nether 



142 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

lip :" 145, C. L., Fountain at Aranjuez, an exquisite landskip, 
full of local color and verdurous freshness, and groups which 
realize the very form and pressure of the period of Philip IY., 
and are in fact, in painting, what the letters of Madame 
D'Aunoy are in description. Compare it with 540, C. L., 
another view at Aranjuez. Observe particularly all his small 
bits of landskip, studies of ruins and architecture done at 
Rome, others with moonlight effects, and all marvelous gems 
of art. See 101, 102, 118, 119, 128, 132, 143. Remark 
much 155, C. N., Las Meninas or La Teologia ; here we have 
Yelazquez in his own studio. This was called the " Gospel of 
Art," by Luco Giordano; nor can aerial and lineal perspective, 
local color, animal and human life, be represented beyond this. 
This gradation of tones in lights, shadows, and colors, gives an 
absolute concavity to the flat surface of the canvas, we look 
into space as into a room, or as into the reflection of a mirror. 
The shadows are truly in chiaro oscwro, being transparent and 
diaphanous, and rather a subdued light and less pronounced 
color than a dark veil. The picture is remarkable for the 
chariness of bright colors : an olive greenish tone pervades the 
background: the accessories are only indicated; indeed, of 
Yelazquez, it may be also said, as Pliny (N. H. xxxv. 11,) 
observed of Timanthes, " Intelligitur plus semper quam pingitur, 
et cum ars summa sit, ingenium tamen ultra artem est :" but 
no painter was ever more objective; there is no showing off of 
the artist ; no calling attention to the performer's dexterity ; 
to the ego, the adsum qui feci; he loved art for itself without 
one disturbing thought of self. 

The scene represents the dull Infanta Margarita, who is tried 
to be amused by her pages, while her two dwarfs, Maria 
Borbola and Nicolacico Pertusano, worry a patient dog, which 



BIG-LIPPED BEAUTY. 143 



is painted finer than a Snyders; these disports and distorts of 
nature, then the fashion of the court, are as hideous as Voltaire, 
ce bovffon du diable ; and the Infanta is mealy-faced and unin- 
teresting; but Yelazquez was too honest to flatter even royalty 
or its fools. 

Next observe 156, Philip I"V., glorious : lit, C. L., C. N., 
the Conde Duque cle Olivares on horseback; the animal is 
somewhat large, and his seat is awkwardly forward, but no 
doubt it was true to life, for Yelazquez would not stoop to woo 
even a premier, or conciliate the spectator: his practical genius 
saw everything as it really was, and his hand, that' obeyed his 
eye and intellect, gave the exact form and pressure without 
much refining. Nothing- can be finer than- the effects produced 
with the chary use of gaudy color in this picture and the pre- 
ceding 155; but no man was ever more sparing of color; he 
husbanded his whites and even yellows, which tell up like gold 
on his unclertoned back-grounds, which always represented 
nature with the intervention of air. Passing now into the 
saloon to the left, 195, C. L., C. N., the Forge of Yulcan; 
forcible, but painted from vulgar, ill-selected models. The 
Apollo has nothing of the deity, while Yulcan is a mere 
Gallician blacksmith: 198, the Infanta Maria in the court 
costume of the day. This portrait is interesting, as she was the 
object of Charles the First's romantic visit to Madrid. She was 
described by Howell, who was then there, "as a very comely 
lady, rather of a Flemish complexion than a Spaniard, fair- 
haired, and carrying a most pure mixture of red and white in 
her face; she is full and big-lipped, which is held a beauty 
rather than a blemish, or any excess, in the Austrian family. " 
Afterwards, when the match was off, he speaks with more 
truth of her being of " fading flaxen hair, big-lipped, and 



144 



TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 



heavy-eyed.'' His letters, " Epistolance Hoeliance" 4to., Lon- 
don, 1645, give many curious details of Charles and his visit, 
and what a loss to this series is the portrait of Charles himself, 
which Yelazquez began: pariunt desideria non traditi vultus 
(Pliny, "N. H." xxxv. 2). It would have been interesting to 
have compared/ the picture by the Great Spaniard, with those 
which we have by Yandyke, who knew Charles by heart, as 
well as Yelazquez did Philip IV., and as we seem to do so too 
after visiting this precious Museo. 

Next observe 200, C. L., Philip IV. in a shooting-dress: 
209, a fine Old Lady, in his early forcible style: 230, C. L., 
C. IS"., Philip III. on horseback, a marvelous specimen of his 
effects produced by placing his figure on cool greys; the royal 
head is full of the individual imbecility of this poor bigot, who 
was twelve years learning his alphabet; 245, C. N., an old man 
called Maenipo: 254, C. N., Esop, finely painted, but looking 
more like a cobbler than a philosopher: 255, C. K"., a Dwarf, 
seated as Yelazquez saw him, and as no one else could have 
ventured to paint him: 267, Un Pretendiente, or place-hunter, 
one of the Autochthones of Madrid; the attitude is admirable: 
270, C. L., the young Prince Baltasar, aged six, with his dog 
and gun. Observe particularly all the numerous sporting 
portraits of theriomaniac Austrian royalty; for whether the 
wearers are dressed for the court or the chace, they wear their 
clothes with ease and fitness, they are the real every-day gar- 
ments of living flexible bodies underneath, not stuck on like the 
fancy masquerade of an imaginative painter, copied from a 
wooden lay figure: 279, C. N., an admirable full-length por- 
trait of a Dwarf; observe how costume, feather, and Dog are 
painted: 284, C. N., El Nino de Vallecas ; it is wonderful how 
he could have fixed the attitude: 289, a magnificently-painted 



ART WITHOUT TRICKS. 145 



portrait; how much effect is produced, with how little detail; 
how unlike the finished style of Pantoja, yet never was armor 
better represented; but Yelazquez was above all tricks, and 
never masked poverty of hand and idea under meretricious 
glitter; with him everything was sober, real, and sterling: 291, 
C. N., El Bclo de Coria ; observe the green tones and expres- 
sion of roguish waggery: 295, the Surprise of Io; nothing can 
exceed the profound sleep of Argos, or the stealthy action of 
Mercury; the god of thieves is painted in an absolute anticipa- 
tion of Sir Joshua's style: 299, C. L., C. K, Philip IY., an 
equestrian portrait; this true <Pdlnnos is witching the world with 
noble horsemanship, the only attitude in which the Monarch 
of Caballeros ought to be painted. The horse is alive, and 
knows its rider ; how everything tells up on the cool blue and 
greens in the back-ground; 303, C. N., Queen Isabel, wife of 
Philip IY., a superb white steed; observe how her costume is 
painted, and despair; remark also the difference of the horses, 
those which carry men are fiery and prancing, while those on 
which women are mounted are gentle and ambling, as if con- 
scious of their timid delicate burden: 319, C. L., the Surrender 
of Breda, or Las Lanzas, is perhaps the finest picture of 
Yelazquez; never were knights, soldiers, or national character 
better painted, or the heavy Fleming, the intellectual Italian, 
and the proud Spaniard more nicely marked even to their boots 
and breeches: the lances of the guards actually vibrate. Ob- 
serve the contrast of the light-blue delicate page, with the dark 
iron-clad General Spinola, who, the model of a high-bred gene- 
rous warrior, is consoling a gallant but vanquished enemy. He 
took Breda, June 2, 1625, and died five years afterwards, 
broken-hearted at Philip IY.'s treatment, exclaiming, " Me han 
quitado la honra!" They have robbed me of honor! Yelaz- 



146 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

quez has introduced his own noble head into this picture, which 
is placed in the corner with a plumed hat. This is indeed a 
male subject, and treated with a masculine mind and hand; nor 
are men aware of how much the sexual undercurrent leads 
them to admire pictures in which beautiful females are presented: 
here, where there is no woman whatever, it is the triumph of 
art by itself. 

Observe particularly 332, C. L., C. ST., Don Baltasar on 
horseback ; the child actually g allops out of the frame, and is 
the anticipation of Edwin Landseer, and his young Highland 
Chieftains on their wild ponies: 335, C. K., Las Hilaiideras, 
the perfection of reality, although taken from ordinary life; 
here the artist, feeling at once his power and weakness, has, 
like Timanthes, turned aside the head of the lady, leaving to 
the imagination of each spectator to invest her with what 
quality of beauty which best accords with his peculiar liking: 
527, in another saloon, is the portrait of Gongora. The defects 
of Yelazquez, this great mortal, for he was not a painter of the 
ideal, will be seen in 62, C. L., Coronation of the Virgin, who 
seems a somewhat sulky female, while the Deity is degraded to 
a toothless monk. But he could not escape from humanity, nor 
soar above into the clouds ; he was neither a poet nor an enthu- 
siast, and somewhat deficient in creative power: again, he painted 
for the court and not for the church ; in a word, Nature was his 
guide, truth his object, and man, not always well selected, his 
model; no Virgin ever descended into his studio, no cherubs 
ever hovered round his pallet, no saint came down from heaven 
to sit for his portrait: hence the neglect and partial failure of 
his sacred subjects, holy, indeed, like those of Caravaggio, in 
nothing but name, being groups rather of low life, and that so 
truly painted, as still more to mar the elevated sentiment, by a 



MURILLO. 14T 



treatment not in harmony with the subject. He went to the 
earth, not to heaven, for models ; hence his Virgin has neither 
the womanly tenderness of Murillo, the unspotted loveliness of 
Raphael, nor the serenity unruffled by human passions of the 
antique ; he rather lowered heaven to earth, than raised earth 
to heaven. 63, C. N., the God Mars, is a vulgar Gallician 
porter: 161, C. L., an Adoration of the Magi, is in his hard 
early style, before he was emancipated from the prevalent 
Ribera peculiarities. So the celebrated Jacob and his Sons, 
formerly in the Escorial, although a picture of great truth and 
force, is but a group of Gallicians; yet even when dipleased 
with such repulsive subjects, we are forced to submit to the 
power of master mind displayed in the representation. This 
naturalist picture was painted in the Vatican itself; so little 
influence had the foreigners Raphael and M. Angelo on the 
local Spaniard, that he dared them with his very failings; in 
fact, when in Italy, he had eyes only for the Venetian school; 
he did not like Raphael, as he candidly told Salvator Rosa. 

Murillo will naturally come next to Velazquez. He, how- 
ever, is seen in greater glory at Seville, his native home. Re- 
ferring, therefore, thither for some account of Murillo, suffice 
it to say here that the specimens of this master of female and 
infantine grace are numerous, but scarcely one has escaped the 
fatal restauracion, i. e. destruction. However, Murillo is so full 
of subject, so dramatic, and comes so home to, and appeals so 
to the common sense of mankind, and is recommended by such 
a magical fascination of color, that he captivates alike the 
learned and unlearned, the sure test of undeniable excellence. 
He has more grace, but far less of the masculine mind than 
Velazquez, who, compared to him, seems somewhat cold and 
grey in color, for Murillo painted flesh as he saw it in An- 



148 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

dalucia, roasted and bronzed by the glowing sun, and not the 
pale and unripened beauty of the north. Like Titian, his 
strength lay in ravishing color ; none ever rivaled him in the 
luminous diaphanous streams of golden ether, in which his 
cherubs float like butterflies ; his blending continuity of tints, 
like those of nature, slide into each other, without a particle of 
harshness or abruptness ; led on by an imperceptible transition, 
where there is no outline, no drawing, so that it is difficult to 
say where one tint ends and another begins. 

Murillo, like Yelazquez, lacked the highest quality of the 
Italian ideal ; true Spaniards, they were local, and imitated 
nature as they saw her ; thus Murillo's holy subjects are not 
glorified forms and visions, which compel us to bow the knee 
and adore, but pleasing scenes of a domestic family, where 
sports of graceful children attract the delighted attention of 
affectionate parents. There is neither the awful sublimity of 
M. Angelo, nor the unearthly purity of Raphael. Again, his 
Ninos Dios are not meditative prescient Infant Gods, nor his 
cherubs those angels of heaven from whence Raphael took his 
types, but simply pretty mortal babes with wings, and not even 
babes of the world at large, but Spanish ones, nay more, only 
local Andalucian children ; and such also are his male saints, 
who rose to glory in their own Baetican clothes and bodies. 

The stranger will, of course, look at all the Murillos, halting 
particularly at 43, C. L., a Holy Family ; a pretty scene of 
conjugal and parental happiness. It was cruelly cleaned and 
repainted at Paris, especially the dog, and face of the Yirgin ; 
46, C. L., a fine representation of the Infant Deity: 50, C. L., 
the Companion Infant Forerunner ; the left leg is not pleasing; 
observe the contrast of the callous foot hardened by exposure, 
with the delicate flesh of 46 : 52, Conversion of St. Paul ; the 



BURLY MONK IN RED. 149 



thigh of the Apostle and his white horse, cruelly repainted: 
54, La Porciuncula (see post), overcleaned : 56, C. L., the 
Annunciation ; the Virgin's cheek is repainted ; 65, La Con- 
ception, one of those representations of sweet cherubs, and the 
fair Virgin floating amid flowers in a golden atmosphere, which 
none could paint like Murillo ; and then the gossamer gauze- 
like draperies which play in the air, just veiling human charms, 
which might suggest thoughts that war with the purity of the 
Virgin : 82, C. L., a Magdalen, all legs and arms, and in his 
imitation of Rlbera style ; 1T4, San Francisco de Paula, was a 
magnificient head and beard, before ruined by the picture- 
cleaner Bueno : 182, Death of St. Andrew, in his vaporoso 
style, was a glorious picture, but is much disharmonized by the 
yiolent white repainting of the horse ; the drapery of the 
Apostle has also been clumsily banado : 189, C. L., Santiago, 
a vulgar, coarse head of rather a Flemish character: 191, 
C. L., C. N., Adoration of Shepherds in his second style, 
hovering between Velazquez and Ribera ; the drawing is fine 
and careful ; observe the local coloring, and foot of peasant, 
and how their rich browns give value to the delicate flesh of 
Virgin and Child : 203, C. L., Infant Saviour and St. John, a 
rich and delightful picture : 208, C. L., Rebecca at the Well, 
in his middle style : the females are somewhat Flemish : 211, 
2, 6, 7, the Parable of the Prodigal Son ; all excellent, but 
treated both as to costume and conception rather according to 
a picaresque Spanish novel than Holy Writ: 219, a rich blue 
Concepcion : 220, St. Augustine; the Virgin somewhat too far 
off, gives her milk to a vulgar burly monk in a black robe, with 
rich red casulla : 229, C. L., another Concepcion, innocence 
itself, and beatifully painted ; how rich and juicy the flesh, how 
full of pulp and throbbing life : 310, C. L., Santa Ana teaching 



150 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

the Yirgin. The pouting child is admirable, but purely mortal ; 
the draperies are in imitation of Roelas : 315, C. IS"., Vision of 
St. Bernard ; this again shows how closely Murillo observed 
Roelas ; the draperies of the saint have been repainted ; but 
his head is fine, and the sentiments of gratitude and veneration 
are admirably expressed. The concealing the feet of the Yirgin 
gives her figure too much height ; 326, C. IS"., the miracle of 
the Yirgin giving the Casulla to San Ildefonso at Toledo, but 
it is of earth, earthy, and the angels are nothing but milliners, 
and the saint a monkish tailor : 423, E., is in another saloon. 
The Yirgin with the rosary, a fine but early picture, in his 
Ribera manner. 

Next observe the paintings of Juan Juanes, the Spanish 
Raphael, who, however, should be studied in his native Va- 
lencia : 196, 1, 9, and 336, 7, C. L., subjects from the life of St. 
Stephen, an Italian-looking series, but the stones (in 196) are 
too much like apple-dumplings. Observe the delight of the 
wicked boys ; the faces of the Hebrews, with their hook noses, 
are somewhat Jewish for fine art. This remark applies equally 
to 225, C. L., the Last Supper, for Juanes was rather a man- 
nerist, however ; but the head of Christ is very fine, although it 
has, unfortunately, been much repainted: 259, the Saviour on 
the Mount of Olives : 268, Descent from the Cross, one of his 
best pictures. Juanes, because savoring of a Roman style, and 
with a harder outline, and more decided drawing, is admired 
by more Spaniards than foreigners. 

Jose Ribera, better known as Spagnoletto (he was born 
at Xativa), maybe truly studied at Madrid; here, this cruel 
forcible imitator of ordinary ill-selected nature, riots in hard 
ascetic monks and blood-boltered subjects, in which this painter 
of the bigot, inquisitor, and executioner delighted : a power of 



Jacob's ladder. 151 



drawing, of expressing long suffering and sufferance, a force of 
color and effect, a contempt of the ideal, beautiful, and tender, 
characterize his productions : unpopular in England, his unfor- 
giving repulsiveness and stern harsh character have ranked him 
among the model-painters of Spain. He was the personal 
friend of Velazquez, w r ho, like Murillo, studied his style deeply, 
as may be seen in all their early productions. As Ribera was 
a mannerist, those who will closely examine half-a-dozen of his 
pictures, will exhaust the master. Observe 42, C. L., the Mar- 
tyrdom of St. Bartholomew, a favorite subject of his, and one 
which few else ever w T ish to see twice : 44, the Yirgin, elderly 
and haggard ; Raphael w r ould have chosen her young and beau- 
tiful : 116, C. L., Jacob's Ladder, a fine picture. The general 
effect is very grand ; the wild broken tree-stumps are painted 
like Salvator Rosa, and the sleep of Jacob (a vulgar brown 
monk) is admirable : 121, Prometheus, a finely painted picture 
of gore and bowels, such alone as could be conceived by a 
bull-fighter, and please a people whose sports are blood and 
torture ; how different from the same subject by the poetical 
Titian (see post). There are here also many Apostles well 
painted by Ribera, which w r e do not enumerate. 285, another 
St. Bartholomew 7 -. In other saloons, observe 415, E., St. 
Jerome : 419, E., a good portrait of a blind Sculptor, El Ciego 
de Gambazo, in which the sentiment of touch is w r ell expressed : 
473, St. Jerome : 480, St. Joseph and the Infant Saviour busy 
with his tools, which is but a transcript of a Spanish carpenter's 
shop : 484, Ixion at the wheel, or rather a Jew on the rack of 
the Spanish Inquisition. 

Next enter las Escudas varias, which is a collection of differ- 
ent schools, with many fine things from the Escorial; the grand 
central gallery is divided into the modern Spanish masters, the 



152 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

old Italians, German and French. Let us take the chief singly, 
and first for Raphael, 1483-1520 : 723, C. L., a Holy Family 
called del Agnus Dei, from the inscription carried by St. John, 
whose body has been very much repainted at Paris, where the 
exquisite face of the Yirgin was rouged. The ruined architec- 
ture and landscape, equal to Titian, is said to be by Giovanni 
da Udina. 726, E., C. N., the celebrated Perla, which belonged 
to King Charles I., and was sold with his other pictures by 
Cromwell. Phillip IY. bought so largely at the auction, 
through his ambassador Alonso de Cardeiias, that 18 mules 
were laden with the lots, and he was so anxious to get them 
into Madrid, that he turned out the Lords Clarendon and 
Cottington, then ambassadors from Charles II., being ashamed 
to exhibit what once belonged to his old friend and visitor. 
When Philip IY. beheld this Raphael, he exclaimed, " This is 
the Pearl of my pictures," and he was a good judge, for never 
was the serious gentleness of the blessed Yirgin Mother, her 
beauty of form, her purity of soul, better portrayed ; the rich 
Titian-like blue sky, streaked with red, forms a fine back- 
ground : this pearl of great price was overcleaned when taken 
to Paris, and has, in 1845, undergone another cruel operation 
at Madrid. HI; E., C. K, Tobit and the Fish, la Virgen del 
Fez, a simple grand symmetrical composition, perhaps some- 
what too yellow in color. This also was taken to Paris, and 
was there removed from board to canvas, a dangerous process 
invented at Ferrara by Antonia Contri, having been first 
scrubbed and over-varnished : T84, Christ bearing the Cross, or 
El Pasmo de Sicllia, from having been painted for a church in 
Sicily, called la Madonna del Spasimo; it is accounted as second 
only to the Transfiguration, by those who look to size, or are 
afraid to express an honest dissent when called upon as a matter 



PICTURE-MENDERS. 153 



of course to fall into stereotyped common-form raptures. This 
picture at Paris was removed from boards to canvas by Mons. 
Bonnemaison, of whom Passavant (Kunstreise 77) records this 
anecdote : Mons. David calling one morning, found him spong- 
ing these Raphaels with spirit of turpentine. Even the man of 
the guillotine was shocked, and ventured to remonstrate, but 
was answered, " It does no harm, it is nourishing." It was 
then much repainted; the tone is hard, brick-dusty and 
relackered. Again, however fine the expression of the mother, 
beautiful the Yeronica and groups to the right, the principal 
figure of the soldier in front is somewhat attitudinarian and 
theatrical. 

Next observe 794, E., a sweet Holy Family, called De la 
Rosa; it has, however, been doubted : 798, E., a small Holy 
Family, painted in 1507 : 834, E., St. Elizabeth visits the 
Yirgin, a contrast of aged and youthful pregnancy, a subject 
never over-pleasing. The composition is very simple, with 
a fine landscape. This also was removed, at Paris, from 
board to canvas, and was then painted over and extra- 
varnished. It is inscribed in letters of gold, Raphael Urbinas, 
F.; Marinus Branconius, F. F. — fecit facere : 901, a portrait, 
according to some, of Bartolo, the jurisconsult; according to 
others, of Andrea Navagiero, ambassador to Charles V., 
and author of " 11 Viaggio de Espagna." Although somewhat 
hard and reddish, it is very grand, simple, and effective : 905, 
C. L., portrait of Cardinal Julio de Medicis, a truly Italian 
head; how full of mental power; observe the decision in the 
fine compressed lips, and the keen intellect of the pursuing eyes: 
909, a portrait, thought by some to be that of Agostino Beazano. 

Of all the Italian schools, that of Yenice is the richest. 
Titian was the personal friend of Charles Y. and Philip II., 



154 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

and (although Kugler doubts it, being evidently unacquainted 
with the Spanish collections,) he came to Madrid in 1532, and 
remained there until 1535, which accounts for the number and 
fineness of his works. 

Again, of all the Italian schools, that of Venice was the 
most admired by Yelazquez, who went purposely to that city 
to purchase pictures for Philip IV.; at Madrid, therefore, 
Titian is to be seen in all his senatorial dignity of portrait, 
and his glorious power of color — oh, glorious, ravishing color ! 
pounded flesh rather, if not rubies and emeralds, and which, in 
spite of unlearned drawing, carries all before it, Titian was, 
indeed, a painter. 

By Tiziano Vecellio, of Cadore, 1417-1516, there are 
forty-three pictures, a museum of themselves. Charles V. on 
horseback, before its recent restoration, was the finest eques- 
trian picture in the world ; it is more sublime and poetical than 
Velazquez, yet equally true to life; the knight-errant emperor, 
a king, aye, every inch a king, inspires an awe, like the 
Theodore of Dryden, pursuing the perjured Honoria : 695, 
Titian's own Portrait, venerable and intelligent : and Calisto, 
two charming sketches, colored with pounded flesh and tur- 
quoise skies; they have been draped and painted over, owing to 
Spanish prudery; the drawing is not very accurate, but Titian 
was eighty-four years old when these were produced. E, the 
celebrated Gloria, or apotheosis of Charles V. and Philip II., 
who, kings on earth, now appear as suppliants before the King 
of heaven, and the angelic court. This, by many considered 
the masterpiece of Titian, was painted, in his best time, for 
Charles V., who directed by his will that it should always be 
hung where his body was buried : it remained at San Yuste, 
until Philip II. moved his father's remains to the Escorial. 



BLOODY MARY. 155 



Next, observe 756, the Punishment of Sisyphus, painted for 
the bloody Mary : 165, C. L., Charles Y. with his favorite 
Irish dog ; this picture belonged to King Charles I. ; here is the 
emperor in his privacy, with his look of care and pain; 169, 
C. L. is his son, Philip II., young, and in armor, rich in 
costume, delicate in form and feature. 116, C. L. Salome, with 
the Head of the Baptist; this exquisite picture is said to be a 
portrait of Titian's daughter, and if the face be not strictly 
correct beauty, it is individual : 181, Prometheus, captured and 
tortured, it was painted for the bloody Mary; "here is the 
rock, the vulture, and the chain, and all the proud can feel of 
pain;" compare the poetical treatment by our Italian, with 121, 
the butcher production of the practical Spaniard, Ribera; it is 
JEschylus contrasted with Torquemada : 801, C. L., Yenus and 
Adonis, glorious; there is an inferior repetition in our National 
Gallery : seen from a certain distance, when the demi-tints tell 
up, all that is flat when one is near, then becomes form and 
meaning : 812, Adam and Eve; observe the pentimentos in 
Adam's head ; this was Rubens' favorite, and no wonder, 
for the forms are more sprawling and the fleshes heavier than 
is usual in Titian : 852, C. L., Offering to Fecundity; marvel- 
ous; but it will shock all Malthusians, for never were so many 
or such playful living children better grouped and painted; 
unfortunately it has been spotted by retouches : this was the 
picture which, when at Rome, in the Ludovisi Gallery, was 
the study and the making of X. Poussin. 854, Victory of 
Leponto, painted by Titian when ninety-one years old; even in 
his age live his wonted fires; the coloring is rich, the har- 
monious effect fine, but the composition feeble; the rows of 
pillars look like organ-pipes; and the angel seems as if it had 
been thrown out of window, and must break its neck ; Philip 



156 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

II., in his red breeches and yellow boots, places his naked son, 
Fernando, somewhat awkwardly on the table : however, as 
a curiosity of the sustained art of Titian, this pieture deserves 
notice. 864, C. L., a Bacchanal ; Ariadne, in the Isle of Naxos, 
abandoned by Theseus ; this, before its restaur -acion, was one of 
the finest pictures in the world; joyous mirth, and a dance 
of light never were so colored ; it is a companion to the inferior 
Bacchus and Ariadne, in the National Gallery at London. 
868, E., Repose in Egypt, a superb landskip; this is the subject 
engraved by Bonasoni. 878, C. L., portrait of Isabella, wife 
of Charles V., superbly painted costume. 915, a magnificent 
Portrait; what a subtlety of intellect ! observe the effect of 
the blue sash. 

Jacobo Robusti il Tintoretto, of Venice, 1512-1594, 
worthily sustains his master's style. 490, E., a Magdalen, 
almost naked. 6*79, a singular picture of the Doge, seated in 
Council, in a superb saloon of state, was long ascribed to 
Tintoretto, it is now ascertained to be by Pietro Malombra, 
Yenice, 1556-1618; it is highly interesting, both as a work of 
art, original portraits, and local costume. 704, La Gloria, the 
original sketch for the picture in the Doge's palace, at Yenice, 
and bought there by Yelazquez; it, however, is heavy in color, 
and a fricassee of legs and arms; the man with a large head in 
the corner seems scared and disappointed, as he well might be 
with such a Paradise. 

Paul Veronese, 1528-1588, appears in all his gorgeous 
brocade, splendor of drapery, and fine portraiture; notice 453, 
E., Marriage of Cana ; it belonged to Charles I. : and 843, 
C. L., Yenus and Adonis, a very fine picture of great repose 
and effect; the flesh and rich draperies are equal to Titian: 876, 
C. L. an allegory, Yirtue and Yice; neither are very attractive 



MADRAZO : DIRECTOR. 15T 

and the youth is stupid, althongh finely painted, and the 
attitudes are very awkward : 896, Cain and his family, a mag- 
nificent composition, a picture of man's despair consoled by a 
true wife, who will not desert the father of her children : the 
brown landskip, lowering sky, and breaking halo, are in sombre 
harmony with the sentiment : 899, Christ disputing with the 
Doctors, finely composed, but somewhat grey, green, and 
wanting in effect. 

Of the Da Pontes, or Bassaxos, there are many and fine 
specimens, but it is tedious to describe these cattle-show 
pictures of sheep and oxen, for the sacred figures are often only 
accessories to the beasts ; 615, Leandro, Orpheus, and ani- 
mals : 620 Jacobo 1510-1592, Dives and Lazarus : 632, E., 
The Money-changers in the Temple, finely colored: 101 Leandro, 
Coppersmiths at Work, a fine specimen : 730, Traveling : 
841, Jacobo, his own Portrait. 

Having examined the Spanish school, Raphael, and the 
Venetians in detail, now take a general view of the rest 
of the gallery. In the Bajada a varias Escuelas, avoid jNo. 
382, a Christ Buffeted, by the Director Sefior Madrazo, 
which suggests the somewhat irreverent criticism of Alonso 
Cano, on being shown a badly executed crucifix, " Forgive 
them, Lord ! for they know what they do." In the Escudas 
varias observe Xo. 401, E., Ruebens, 1517-1640. The Supper 
at Emmaus, a fine, rich, brown painting, although, the Silenus- 
like figure of " mine host " destroys the dignity of sentiment : 
515, Ignacio Iriarte, 1620-1685, a Landskip ; Murillo used to 
say that he was fit to paint scenes in heaven, which must be 
understood as meaning Andalucia, the elysium of these local 
Sevillians : 526 and 532 are other specimens, yet, compared to 
the Italian, Dutch, and English landskip painters, Iriarte is 



158 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

very second-rate; but in Spain, as among the classical anci- 
ents, landskip was only an accessory or conventional, and 
seldom really treated as a principal either in art or litera- 
ture : their efforts were vague bald generalities, with no true 
graphic quality, no precision of touch, no local color, air, sensi- 
bility, no individuality. They seldom saw nature with the 
poet's feeling combined with the painter's eye ; the pen and 
pencil were sculpturesque rather than picturesque, man being 
the absorbing object. Again, a taste for landskip is acquired, 
and few Orientals or Spaniards have any feeling for nature 
beyond local associations, or notions of profit and personal en- 
joyment ; they love the country, not for itself, but as in relation 
to themselves; but even some of our gentleman farmers are 
often so blunted by professional habits, as only to be thinking 
of draining, where Durand would go crazy with delight, and 
when talking of bullocks which would drive Paul Potter mad, 
are solely speculating on what per score the carcase will fetch, 
sinking the offal. 

Now examine the German, Flemish, and French schools, 
which are collected in a circular saloon by themselves, not that 
they have much in common with each other. The Spaniards 
have very properly placed Gaspar Poussin, who was born at 
Rome, among the Italians, and yet have included Kicholaz 
Poussin, and Claude among the French; but Claude. left 
France, aged 12, a pastry-cook's boy, and pies, capital ones no 
doubt, he would have lived and died making in that paradise of 
transcendental culinary artistes. In beautiful poetical Italy, 
the nurse of art, where there are more altars than ovens, more 
painters than pastry-cooks, his other dormant capabilities were 
awaked; then and there the mighty genius, imprisoned in a 
jam-pot, burst forth to better things; and the youth having 



GARDEN OF HESPERUS. 159 

been born artistically again in a new and congenial country, 
became a great Italian painter: and, like him, Poussin, early in 
life, abandoned his unpicturesque country ; re-educated at 
Rome, he became so Roman, majestic, historical, and utterly 
un-French, that he could only breathe a classical air: thus, 
when compelled by Louis XIV. to return to fickle France, this 
serious man pined, sickened, and would have died, unless re- 
stored to a better atmosphere and scenery. Both are essen- 
tially Italians as painters, which is their whole attraction; and 
if this be doubted, compare their style and sentiment to the 
veritable Frenchmen, whose works are hung near them, to wit, 
the Jouvenets, Lafosses, Mignards, and Rigauds. As Holbein 
and Vandyke were formed by painting English gentlemen and 
ladies, the noblest and most beautiful models in the creation, so 
Claude and Pousson were created by the sunny skies, the tem- 
ples and antiquities of Italy, and they both lived and died at 
Rome, their adopted country; and their ashes repose on the 
banks of the classical Tiber, not on those of the common-place 
Seine. Ingrata patria ne ossa quidem ! Their nationality 
must be decided by their fruit, and they are the golden apples 
of a garden of Hesperus, and to both may be applied the old 
adage, non ubi nascitur sed ubi pascitur. If Claude is to 
change his country, it should be for nature-worshipping Eng- 
land, where he is best estimated, and where his finest works 
are to be found. 

The Poussins, both Gaspar and Nicolas, are first-rate. Ob- 
serve 942, C. L., Claude Gilee, Lorraiee. 1600-1682, Ruins at 
Rome, with the Coliseum; the figures are by Philipo Laura, as 
Claude was accustomed to say, that he sold his landskips, but 
gave away his figures. It is doubtful, however, whether even 
better-drawn figures by another hand really tell, either in form or 



160 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

color, so well as those dashed in by the landskip painter himself, 
who used them not for themselves, but as aids and accessories, 
which a figure painter would forget and convert them into 
principals. 945, Nicolas Poussin, of Normandy, 1594-1665: 
94 ?, C. L., Claude, a Sunset; full of exquisite repose. The 
figures, except the Shepherd, are by Courtois. 948, N. Pous- 
sin, Bacchus and Nymphs, a most classical group, in a splendid 
landskip; 1006, 1020, two curious hunting pictures, by Lucas 
Cranach, 14T2-1552: the Elector John of Saxony entertains 
Charles Y., who is to be recognised by his Golden Fleece. 
The buildings and costume are truly old German ; then there 
is a sea of hartshorn, and a marvelous contempt of perspective. 
1081, C. L., Claude, a superb Sunrise, with sea and architec- 
ture; the groups embarking are by Courtois; No. 51 in u Lib. 
Yer. :" 1082, C. L., Claude, a Morning Scene, rather dark, and 
in an earlier style; figures by P. Laura: 1086, C. L., Claude, 
Landskip, with a Ford; also in an early style, with figures, by 
P. Laura. These Claudes, when we last saw them, were much 
in want of lining, but were pure as the day they were painted. 
These truly Italian gems are surrounded by pictures, of whose 
nationality there can be no mistake ; but the clinquant Louis 
XI Y. periwigs act like foils, by contrasting style; how the 
simple feeling of a nature pure and undefiled soars above the 
theatrical and artificial ! 

Now pass the Flemish and Dutch Schools. In the Gakria 
de Paso are examples of the Neapolitan and Bolognese artists 
of the seventeenth century: among them Luca Giordano is 
remarkable, whose fa presto style, fatal facility, and hasty pre- 
sumption led to the utter decline of painting. The gods grant 
no excellence to mortals without labor. Yenus, the mother 
of love and type of beauty, was united to the hard-working 



HANDMAID OF RELIGION. 161 

Yulcan. By Luca are, 1088, Hercules: 1090, Perseus: 1094, 
Susanna : 1096, Repentance of St. Peter : 1098, Rinaldo and 
Armida. 

There is an apartment of State, called La Sala del descanso, 
where the royal family repose after the fatigue of visiting the 
Museo, where was hung, by order of Ferdinand VII., a paint- 
ing of his landing at Puerto de Santa Maria, by Aparicio : 
anything so bad never was painted or conceived ; and yet an 
especial description of this single picture was sold by itself at 
the entrance of the Museo, which speaks volumes as to the ful- 
some servility and artistical ignorance of those who directed 
the taste of Spain. 

The Flemish and Dutch pictures come the last in the Cata- 
logue, and are of the highest quality and very pure. The long 
connexion between Spain and the Low Countries ensured a 
constant supply of the best works ; and hitherto, from not 
being valued by Spaniards so much as those of their own and 
the Italian masters, they have escaped the fatal restauracion. 
The Spaniard, long accustomed to see the art, the handmaid 
of religion, associates the altar with all painting of a high 
class ; accordingly, the low, earthy doings of the Dutch seem 
to him to be vulgar, and beneath the dignity of art ; while the 
compensating truth and beauty of their landskip are lost on 
a nation which is by no means keenly alive to the charms of 
the country and nature itself. 

The best pictures here of these schools, are those by Ru- 
bens, Vandyke, and Antonio Moro, who was long in Spain. 
Rubens, in spite of his want of purity, his occasional Helot 
sensuality, worse conceptions, and ill-selected models, has the 
compensating power of a glowing, rich, and harmonious color, 
which shines like a light from within ; nor can one fail to be 



162 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

charmed with bold animal nature, riotous impulses, real life, 
energy of action, and pulpy delineation of flesh and blood. 
Yandyke is the Yelazquez of England, with the advantage of 
better models, both male and female, for he painted the aris- 
tocracy of Great Britain, the most manly, finely formed, and 
beatiful in the world. Again, he had the advantage of paint- 
ing ladies, whose portraits were rarely taken, from the then 
jealous habits of Spaniards. Yandyke is as elegant and satiny 
as Yelazquez is dark and stately. The specimens of Wouver- 
mans are beyond all price, and gems of purest art. Those by 
Teniers, Snyders, Breughel, P. Neefs. Both, are very fine ; but 
here again, as in the Italian and Spanish schools, the collection 
is very imperfect. There is little or nothing of such great mas- 
ters as Rembrandt, Carl du Jardin, Cuyp, Hobbema, Jan 
Steen, "mine jolly host," Yandervelt, Mieris, Backhuisen, 
Yanderneer, Ostade, Ruisdael, Adrian and William Yander- 
velde, Paul Potter, Yan Hooghe, Terburg, Metzu, Gerard 
Dow, Paul Bril, etc. 

To give any particular description of the wilderness of 
monkeys by Teniers, the dogs, game, kitchenware, and drunken 
Dutchmen of Ostade, would be tedious as to count the cattle 
of the Bassans, although intelligible, and therefore delightful, 
to even the meanest capacities ; since, where one person com- 
prehends the ideality of Raphael, the sublimity of M. Angelo, 
a thousand will relish a true delineation of a flask of beer, and 
the humor of the boor who drinks it. Again, the business-like 
item accuracy and working out of details, are understood by 
your practical men of business and common sense, as they make 
no demand on the imagination ; while effects produced by broad 
masses, indistinct shado wings out, neglect of accessories, and 
appeals to the mind, positively appear, especially where there 



UNDOUBTED ORIGINALS. 163 



is no mind, to be dishonest and unworkmanlike. But an appre- 
ciation of all this mechanical detail and bona fide fulfilment of 
contract is lost on the Spaniard, who is at best a bungling 
operative, and one who sometimes promises rather than pays 
or performs. 

The lover of cinquecento goldsmith-work should, by all means, 
inquire for the superb collection of above a hundred cups, 
tazzas, and exquisite jeweled plate which have recently been 
removed to the Museo, by the laudable exertions of Yicente 
Carderera, from the shameful neglect in which they were long 
abandoned in the academy of San Fernando, in the disorder 
and damaged condition as they were left by French ravagers; 
among them observe particularly a Mermaid, with emerald tail, 
rising out of gold, studded with rubies, by Cellini; and a cup, 
supported by a female. 

While on the subject of art, it may be as well to take the 
Kew Museum, which was opened to the public by Espartero, on 
the anniversary of the dos de Mayo, 1842. It is in the Calle de 
Atocha, and is called Museo la Trinidad, because established in 
the suppressed convent of that name. 

Among the best things, of which it is impossible to give 
a regular account, as nothing is in order, and changes con- 
stantly take place, observe the series of pictures representing 
the sufferings of the Carthusian monks, when persecuted by 
Henry VIII., and painted by Carducho, for the convent of El 
Paular. Observe particulary el Jubilio de Porciuncula, a large 
picture which once was by Murillo ; as its history may be useful 
to those about to purchase " undoubted originals" in Spain. 
In our time it belonged to the Capuchinos, at Seville, whose 
ignorant monks exchanged it for some modern daubs, to 
fill their cloisters, with one Benjarano, a bungling picture- 



164 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

restorer. Although much injured from exposure to sun and 
air, the surface was then pure; Benjarano began by painting it 
all over, and then offered it to Mr. Williams for JS120, who 
declined it : at last it was purchased by Joaquin Cortes, 
(director of the Seville Academy,) for Madrazo, for £180, on 
speculation, who worked much on it himself, and then handed it 
over to Sefior Bueno, one of the most daring of his familiars. 
Finally £2,000 was asked for the picture, which eventually was 
bought by the Infante Don Sebastion, for £900. One word 
on the subject, which is very common in Spain, as no Franciscan 
convents were, without their Porciuncula, which alludes to their 
grand jubilee, held every 1st of August, when all penitents 
who visited the temporary cave or chapel arranged in the 
convent, obtained instant absolution from all sins, hence the 
jubilee was called " toties quoties." It arose thus: — St. Francis, 
the founder, retired in 1206, to the wildest retreats in Monte 
Alverno, "nel crudo sasso infra Tever ed Arno," near Assisi, 
and there repaired the small deserted church, Santa Maria 
degli Angioli, which also was called la Porciuncula, because a 
portion of some property of some Benedictines : here founded 
his order; here he received the stigmata; here he died; from 
the favors he here received from the Yirgin, it became the 
holy of holies : the scene generally painted is his scourging him- 
self with thorns, when he was visited by the Virgin and 
Saviour, who brought him red and white roses, which had 
bloomed from his rods, and granted such an immunity to the 
spot, that "if a man had killed all the other men in the world, 
by only entering this grotto, he would come out as pure as a 
newly-baptized infant :" hence this cave was soon prodigiously 
frequented, whereupon the Spanish Franciscans induced the 
Pontiff to concede to each of their convents its imaginary 



A ROYAL ROAD. 165 



cave, in which the same benefits could be obtained by all who 
offered pious donations. Accordingly, in their grotto chapel, 
a painting explained the legend to those who could not read. 



EXCURSION FROM MADRID. 

LA GRANJA. 

Three days spent in the museum of Madrid were hardly suffi- 
cient for the proper study of this gallery, which may be con- 
sidered the first in Europe, it contains specimens of almost every 
school of painting from the time of Albert Durer to the period 
of Raphael. Months might have been profitably passed in 
becoming acquainted with a collection of art which is rich in the 
subjects of Yelazquez, the master of the Spanish easel ; but the 
oppressive heats of summer, (for we are now at the end of 
July,) led us to seek for a more favorable climate among some 
one of the numerous royal retreats of the nobility. We con- 
cluded upon La Granja, it being more accessible than any 
other, and the more likely to interest us, because it has suffered 
less from the inroads of man, nature having been left to remain 
there in all her primitive and charming beauty. Besides, it 
was then the residence of the queen, a fact which drew together 
a large concourse of her people, who were attracted thither by 
the presence of her royal person at the Court. 

Having secured a seat in the diligence at the office of the 
Company in Calle de Alcala, we started about ten o'clock in 
the evening, and were soon trotted out on the Camino real, a 
road which is unnecessarily magnificent, no expense being 
grudged on this highway of the queen, leading from the capital 
by the banks of the Manzanares to her summer resort in the 



166 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

mountains. After crossing the Plaza de Hierro, the toll-house, 
and huge bridge, San Fernando, with its heavy statues, the 
desert environs of Madrid are soon entered. The contrast of 
leaving a crowded city increased the forlorn loneliness of the 
night. 

On the following morning we found ourselves at the foot of 
the Sierra Neva, and shortly afterwards within sight of San 
Ildefonso. The scenery at this point was splendid, a jumble 
of mountains and rock, with glorious pines flinging their wild 
arms athwart the precipices. The road was constructed at a 
reckless expense for the personal convenience of royalty. After 
passing the puerto, we descended into the village, or royal 
siteo } in which the Court always pass the hot months of June, 
July, and September. Here, in an excellent inn, kept during 
the season in the Casa de Infantes, a part of the detached build- 
ings of the palace, we found refreshment until called to take our 
seats in the diligence for Segovia ; — that venerable and interest- 
ing old city, which we preferred to visit before settling down at 
our lodgings in the neighborhood of the palace of La Granja. 

SEGOVIA. 

Now, Segovia is only two leagues off, and a pleasant hour's 
drive. 

Descending from La Granja into the plains, we soon reached 
the ancient city of Segovia, and putting up at the best inn, el 
meson grande on the plaza, one of the worst in ail Spain ; we 
soon learned all about this grand hotel, which remained the 
genuine specimen of an unmodernized Castilian khan. 

Our last view of the town before entering it had prepared us 
for its wonders, by showing the magnificent proportions of its 



THE "SPAINS." 161 



ancient aqueduct and the towers of its Cathedral. This fine 
aqueduct, one of the most interesting relics of the works of 
the Romans, the Cathedral, and the Alcaz, or Moorish palace, 
are among the most remarkable structures of the kingdom, 
while, on the pillars of the inner courts of the palaces and 
over the doorways of several private houses, traces may be 
still found of the most elegant and delicate specimens of 
Moorish workmanship, and scrolls of Arabesque patterns, which 
display the highest invention in art. Thus, in these out-of-the- 
way towns, one is led to discover the true meaning and fascina- 
tion of these words, " the Spains." Here, in the vestiges of the 
different nations which once swept over her lands, one remarks 
the footprints of the Goth, the Arab, and the Moor ; and 
thence arose the many diversities of habitudes, manners and 
customs which would have otherwise been inexplicable with- 
out some such reference to the prestige of their lost originals. 
At the capital, these contrarieties are occasional and accidental 
only, because, as Spain herself is but an aggregate of "the 
Spains," so Madrid may be considered both as the union of 
many different people who have been drawn together by the 
natural centralization of a metropolis, and as the teeming 
mother of an heterogeneous progeny. Therefore, in order to 
study the peculiarities of each people, it is necessary to visit 
the provinces. 

The cathedral before alluded to stands on the main square, 
looking proudly down on the miserable old Spanish houses 
that line the Plaza. Its inner proportions are simple and 
grand. The church, or anti-choral, is constructed of rich 
marble, and the cloisters are elegantly lighted. The prospect 
from its steeple tower, extending over the town and surround- 
ing country, was glorious. 



168 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

Upon leaving this church, I proceeded to the Alcazar — a 
relic of the Moors — now used as an Academy for the Artillery. 
Some of the apartments still retained the remnants of its bril- 
liant Oriental pendants and arabesque ornaments, hanging from 
their roofs ; the one especially termed the trunk room, had been 
formerly used by Alphonso the Wise, for astronomical purposes. 
This quaint old building sits superbly upon the heights at the 
back of the town, and looks quite picturesquely from the banks 
of the Eresma, which flows underneath the base of its walls. 
Whilst walking along this river, I noticed some remnants of 
elegantly sculptured work on the doors of the ruins of the 
Parral, and near by, under the sheltering roof of a cave, I 
stopped awhile to watch the movements of a couple of gip- 
sies who had taken up their abode at that spot, and with 
their camp implements and utensils, were regaling themselves, 
like Spanish beggars, thus forming a fit subject for the artist. 
The group was much admired, and their actions closely studied, 
for they were the first Gitanos I had seen in Spain, and vividly 
recalled to my mind the interesting pages of Barrow's Bible in 
Spain, and his work on the Zincali. 

Segovia is of Iberian name and origin, seca and sego being a 
common prefix: Humboldt (Urb. 188) enumerates no less than 
twenty-two instances; while Briga "town," is a still commoner 
termination. 

The long city of Segovia, with its narrow irregular streets, 
stands on the rocky knoll which rises east and west in a 
valley with the Alcazar perched on the west point. It is girdled 
to the north by the trout stream Eresma, which is joined below 
the Alcazar by the clamorous rivulet el Clamores ; the banks 
of these streams are wooded and pretty, and contrast with 
the bleak and barren hills. The strong town is encircled 



WOOD, WORK A FEE. 169 



by very picturesque but dilapidated old walls with round 
towers, built by Alonso VI., which are to be seen to great 
advantage from the hill of the Calvario ; it is altogether a good 
specimen of an old-fashioned Castilian city, with quaint houses, 
balconies, and a Prout-like plaza. It is very cold, being above 
3300 feet above the sea, and has much decayed ; the popula- 
tion, once exceeding 30,000, having dwindled to less than 9000. 
It is still the see of a bishop, suffragan to Toledo. 

According to Colmenares, Tubal first peopled Spain, then 
Hercules founded Segovia, for which Hispan erected the bridge 
as they call the aqueduct, although it brings water over men, 
not men over water. The city bears " el Puente" on its shield, 
with one of the heads of Pompey's sons looking over it. This 
Roman work, from its resemblance to the masonry of Alcantara 
and Merida, was probably erected by Trajan, but neither Sego- 
via nor its aqueduct are mentioned by the ancients, with whom 
such mighty works seem to be things of course. This aqueduct 
was respected by the Goth, but broken down in 1071 by the 
Moors of Toledo, who sacked Segovia and destroyed thirty-five 
arches. It remained in ruin until August 26, 1483, when Isabella 
employed a monk of the Parral convent, one Juan Escovedo, 
who, born in the Asturias, about 1547, and the son of a mere 
carpenter, had the good taste to imitate the model before him, 
and therefore was the first to restore the Grseco-Romano style 
in Spain : when he went to Seville to report the completion of 
the repairs, Isabella gave him for his fee all the wood work of 
the scaffoldings. 

The new work is intermixed with the old, and occurs chiefly 
near the angles of la Concepcion and San Francisco. Escovedo 
also built the bridges over the Eresma. The aqueduct com- 
mences with single arches, which rise higher as the dip of the 



a 



170 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AXD MOOR. 

ground deepens, until they become double. Those of the upper 
tier are uniform in height ; the three central are the highest, 
being 102 feet. This noble work is constructed of granite 
without cement or mortar; and, like other similar erections of 
the Romans, unites simplicity, proportion, solidity, and utility, 
and its grandeur is rather the result of these qualities than the 
intention of the architect. An inscription formerly ran between 
the tiers of the central arches, and the learned strive in vain to 
make out what the words were, guessing from the holes which 
remain for the pins of the bronze letters which have been ex- 
tracted. According to some antiquarians the aqueduct was 
built by one Licinius, but the unlearned people call it el Puente 
del Diallo, " the devil's bridge," because his Satanic majesty 
was in love with a Segoviana, and offered his services for her 
favors, when she, tired of going up and down hill to fetch water, 
promised to consent, provided he would build an aqueduct in 
one night, which he did One stone, however, having been 
found wanting, the church decided the contract to be void, and 
so the hard-working wicked one was done. It is vain to talk to 
the lower Segovians about Trajan, etc. ; they prefer the devil, 
and especially as a Pontifex maximus. 

The aqueduct, be its author who it may, is well seen from San 
Juan, in its beautiful perspective, overtopping the pigmy town. 
The grandest point is from the corner of the Calle de Gascos, 
but the stones have suffered from houses having been built up 
against the arches, and have been discolored by chimney smoke 
and drips from Cerbatanas, or gutters and pipes. A plan was 
in vain proposed in 1803 to Charles IY. to remove all these 
unsightly causes of injury. However, in September, 1806, the 
carriage of the pregnant ambassadress of Sweden having been 
upset by these encroachments, whereby she had a miscarriage. 



FLORID GOTHIC PILE. Ill 



the king ordered the arches to be cleared. It was intended to 
have opened the whole of the Plaza del Azoquejo (zoq coco, from 
the Arabic Suk, a place), and thus to have made a grand 
square with the aqueduct on one side, exposed in all its unveiled 
majesty. The French invasion marred the scheme of question- 
able artificial amelioration, for the very irregularity and mean- 
ness of the buildings around render the aqueduct the emphatic 
feature, as it soars larger and nobler by the force of contrast. 

The cathedral, a noble florid Gothic pile, built of beautiful 
warm-colored stone, is seen to great advantage from the curi- 
ous old irregular plaza. It is one of the finest in Spain, and 
deserves great attention ; like the old Bath church of 1522, it 
was the last of the pure Gothic cathedrals : that style died like 
a dolphin, setting as a southern sun in all its glories, without 
twilight or decrepitude ; the square tower, crowned with a 
cupola, rises 330 feet high, having been lowered twenty-two feet 
from fears of lightning. The panorama over the city, gardens, 
convents, gigantic aqueduct, and mountain distances, is superb. 
The older cathedral was almost destroyed by the reformers on 
Comuneros in May, 1520, who commenced business by pulling 
down churches, hanging the authorities, plundering the rich, 
and burning the houses for the public good. 

The new building was begun in 1525 by Juan Gil de Onta- 
non and his son Rodrigo, their beautiful cathedral at Sala- 
manca having been chosen as a model. The west front of the 
exterior is perhaps somewhat bald and unornamented, while the 
east end is over-crocketed, and the pinnacles small ; the inte- 
rior, however, is light and very striking from the simple, bold, 
and well-arranged designs of the arches and vaulting ; most of 
the windows are filled with stained glass of fine colors. The 
high altar is enclosed by lofty iron railings, relieved by gilding, 



112 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

somewhat after the exquisite purcloses of the Certoso of Pavia. 
The great retablo, composed of precious marbles, was put up 
for Charles III. by Sabintini. The trascoro is enriched with 
the salmon-colored marbles of which the beautiful diamond- 
formed pavement is partly composed. 

The cheerful Gothic cloisters belonged to the former cathe- 
dral ; they were taken down, and put up again by Juan Cam- 
pero in 1524, a triumph of art. Among the sepulchres observe 
that of Diego de Covarrubias, obt. 1516. The fine prelate, with 
closed eyes and clasped hands, is arrayed in pontificalibus. Re- 
mark also the tomb of the Infante Don Pedro, son of Henrique 
II. He was let fall from the window of the Alcazar in 1366 
by his nurse. Judging from his statue he must have been a 
fine baby for nine years old. Here also lies Maria Saltos, a 
frail beautiful Jewess by creed, but Christian in heart ; she was 
about to be cast from a rock for adultery, when she invoked 
the Yirgin, who visibly appeared and let her down gently. She 
was then baptized Maria del Salto, of the Leap, became a saint, 
and died in 1231. 

The Alcazar in which Gil Bias was confined, for Le Sage, 
like Cervantes, has given an historical and local habitation to 
the airy nothings of fancy, rises like the prow of Segovia over 
the waters-meet below. The great keep is studded with those 
bartizans, or turrets, at the angles which are so common in 
Castilian castles, but the slate and French-like roofs in other 
portions mar the effect. The building was originally Moorish, 
and was magnificently repaired in 1452-58 by Henrique IY., 
who resided and kept his treasures in it. The Alcazar was 
ceded to the crown in 1164 by the hereditary Alcaide, the 
Conde de Chinchon, whose ancestor had so hospitably wel- 
comed in it Charles I. He lodged there Wednesday, 13th Sep- 



LARGE TROUT." 173 



tember, 1623, and supped, says the record, on "certaine trouts 
of extraordinary greatnesse." The castle-palace was at last 
made into an artillery college, and, as it is one of the few in 
Spain which the French did not destroy, remains as a specimen 
of what so many others were before their invasion. The gen- 
eral character is Gotho-Moorish: the ceilings and cornices and 
friezes are splendidly gilt, especially in the Salo de Trono and 
Salo de Recibimiento ; the inscriptions in one room give the 
names of many kings and queens from Catalina, 1412, down to 
Philip II., 1592, whose shield quarters the arms of England in 
right of his wife, Mary. In the Sala de los Reyes (from the 
window of which the infante was let fall) are some singular 
statues of Spanish kings, which were begun by Alonso IX., 
continued in 1442 by Henrique IV., and added to in 1581 by 
Philip II. The Pieza del Cordon is a singular trunk-headed 
saloon, in which Alonso el Sabio ventured to doubt the sun's 
moving round the earth, whereupon his astronomical studies 
were interrupted by a flash of lightning, in memorial of which, 
and as a warning for the future, the rope of St. Francis was 
modeled and put up. The king had worn it as a penance. 
The chapel contains some fine arabesques : the views from the 
windows are striking, although not quite so floral and pic- 
turesque as represented to Gil Bias by the governor, who some- 
what over-colored things for the honor of Castile. 

Descending now to the Eresma by Piterta Castellana, look 
up at the quaint Alcazar from the Fuencisla, near the Clamores, 
now doubly clamorous from chattering washerwomen, the 
Naiades of the rustling stream. The cliff above Fuencisla, 
Fons stillans, was called La PefLa grajera, because the crows 
nestled there to pick the bodies of criminals cast down from 
this Tarpeian rock. The cypress opposite the Carmelitas des- 



174 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

colzas marks the spot where Maria Saltos lighted unhurt ; and 
in the chapel is the identical image of the Yirgin which saved 
her. The image was miraculously concealed during the time 
the Moors possessed Segovia, but re-appeared on this site when 
the Christians recovered the town, and thereupon the convent 
was built and richly endowed. 

Now turn on to the left up the valley of the Eresma to the 
Casa de Moneda, or mint, which was founded by Alonso VII., 
rebuilt by Henrique IV. in 1455, and repaired and fitted with 
German machinery by Philip II. in 1586. Formerly fill the 
national coinage was struck here, as the river afforded water- 
power, and the adjoining Alcazar was the treasury: in 1130 
the gold and silver coinage was transferred to Madrid : now 
nothing is struck but copper, and for this Segovia is ill-selected, 
as the distance is so great to Rio Tinto, from whence the metal 
is brought. Adjoining on a slope is la Vera Cruz, & very 
curious church, built in 1204 by the Templars, but now going 
to ruin, with the octagon forms and the square tower. 

Higher up is the Parral, a once wealthy Jeronomite convent, 
which nestles amid vines and gardens, under a barren rock, 
hence its name and the proverb, Las huertas del Parral paraiso 
terrenal. Juan, the celebrated Marques de Villena, founded 
this convent on the site of a celebrated duel where, asi cuenta la 
historia, he defeated three antagonists. The superb sepulchres 
of Juan and his wife Maria, kneeling with an attendant, have 
been barbarously whitewashed. The cloister and ceilings of the 
library and refectory are worth notice; the tower was raised 
twenty-nine feet in 1529, by Juan Campero. 



SHEEP SHEARING. 1*5 



WOOL STAPLE. 

Segovia was entered by General Frere, June 7, 1808, who, 
notwithstanding no sort of resistance was made, sacked it, a la, 
Medellin; for he too, like his model, Victor, began life as a 
drummer boy. Its prosperity depended on its staple, wool, but 
then the flocks were eaten up by the wolf, and now only a few 
poor cloth manufactories languish in the suburb San Lorenzo. 
In 1829 some improved machinery was introduced, which the 
hand-loom weavers destroyed. The Cabanas, or sheep-flocks 
of Segovia, furnished the fleeces, and the Eresma, a peculiar 
water for washing the wool : for Merinos and the Mcsta, see 
Ford. The sheep-washings and shearings were formerly the 
grand attractions of the place ; the vast flocks of the monks of 
the Escorial, el Paular, and other proprietors, were driven in 
May into large Esqnileos, or quadrangles of two stories, over 
which a " Factor " presided. First, the sheep went into the 
Sudadero, and when well sweated had their legs tied by Liga- 
dores, who handed them over to the shearers, each of whom 
clip from eight to ten sheep a day. When shorn, the animals 
next were taken to the Empcgadero, to be tarred and branded; 
after which the whole lot were looked over by the Capatazes, 
or head shepherds, when the old and useless were selected for 
the butcher; the spared were carefully attended to, as being 
liable to take cold after shearing, and die. During all these 
processes, food and drink were plentifully carried about to all 
employed, by persons called Echavinos. The wool is sorted by 
Recilidores, and the bad, las Cardas, set aside. The pila, or 
produce, if sold at once, is then weighed, or if. destined to be 
washed, is sent to the Lavadero. There are three different 
classes of wool, which are determined by an appraiser, the apar- 



176 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

tador, of whom there is a guild at Segovia. The value has 
fallen off since the invasion, as from eight to three; then, too, 
many barns and buildings were destroyed, which, from want of 
capital, have never been restored: the subsequent loss of South 
America completed the ruin. The common cloth made here 
was coarse, but strong; a little, however, of a finer sort, called 
Henna, from a sort of Guanaco, or South American goat, was 
made for the rich clergy, with a soft nap; now those customers 
have ceased. The extent, however, of the former boasted com- 
merce must be somewhat discounted, for the real staples were 
coarse Xergas (Arabice Xercas), serges and Panos jpardos: 
these, in the time of Juan II., sold only for 40 maravedis the 
yard, while cloth of Florence fetched 167, and fine scarlet of 
London, 400; in fact, the home manufactures were only used 
by the poor, and for liveries, while the rich, as now, imported 
everything of a better quality from abroad. Yet anti-manu- 
turing Spain prides herself in the order of the Golden Fleece, 
forgetting that it was established by the good Duke of Bur- 
gundy, to mark his preference for his rich, manufacturing, in- 
telligent towns, over a poor, proud, indolent and ignorant feudal 
nobility — a feeling diametrically opposed to genuine Spanish 
notions. Pecus, unde Peeunia, was the secret of the power of 
Bruges and Ghent, of the Goldon Fleece, the symbol of the com- 
mercial Argonauts, became, like the Woolsack, the "canting" 
charge of a woolen staple. Again, strictly speaking, Spain has 
no right to this order, which passed with the Low Couuntries to 
Austria. Nevertheless, having lost the substance, she clings to 
the form, for neither nations nor individuals like to relinquish 
even the semblance of title or power. 

On returning to my inn, I passed through the Castilian Gate, 
and by the way observed several fine bits of arabesque on the 



ALPINE SCENERY. ]TT 



walls. The scroll carvings on some of the old towers, the win- 
dows of several houses, and the columns in many a court-yard, 
revived in the recollection the memories of its ancient Moorish 
inhabitants. Every order of architecture appeared to be repre- 
sented in this town: even the Saxon arches, with capacious 
capitals, was observed in a tower in the Plaza of de San Este- 
ban. The Puerta de Santiago, is Moorish; the granite portals 
and peculiar Toledern ball ornaments, prevail in Segovia; and 
the gate of San Andres, is quite a picture. 

Following the course of the greatest antiquity in the place, 
and the line of the Roman aqueduct to its extreme length, I 
counted no less than 115 perfect arches, the average height of 
each being about thirty feet. I observed that the stones 
appeared to stand as securely as on the day on which they had 
been laid, and what was more wonderful, there was no evidence 
of any cement having ever been used in their construction. 

LA GRAN J A. 

At eight o'clock in the evening, I found my way back to La 
Granja, and on the following morning rose to enjoy my first 
sight of the palaces and gardens of this regal residence. 

La Granja, with its quaint old towers, nestled under the 
brows of the Penalara, rises over the forests at its feet. Situ- 
ated about 3,000 feet above the level of the sea, and within 
range of the Sierra Neva, its climate is always cool. The 
delightful promenades, attached to the palace, are so overhung 
with shade and forest-trees, and watered by the moist exhala- 
tions of numerous fountains, as to render it a fit abode for ma- 
jesty, or a pleasant habitation for those favorites who bask in 
the sunshine of courts, without detracting from that beauty of 



118 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

those quiet and secluded spots which a reflecting and contem- 
plative nature seeks to create amid the haunts of gaiety, luxury 
and pleasure. The grounds were laid out by Philip II., who 
retired to this place in order to avoid the intrigues of courtiers ; 
and while here, he employed his leisure hours in the embellish- 
ment of La Granja — a farm-house previously — which by his 
Aladdin-magic lamp was converted into the present magnificent 
and luxurious retreat. Here his caprices reveled amid the in- 
dulgence of his horticultural and agricultural fancies, and while 
he gratified his taste, it cost his people the sum of 5,000,000 
of pesos duros. At such an outlay, it is not surprising that the 
fountains are superior to to those at Versailles, nor is it 
wonderful that La Granja is considered by the Spaniards, as the 
boasted Garden of Spain. 

This cool castle in the air is, say the Castilians, a worthy 
chateau of the Queen of Spain ; as she is the loftiest of all 
earthly sovereigns, so her abode soars nearest to heaven ; the 
elevation cannot be doubted, as the palace is placed on the 
northwest range of the Sierra, 3840 feet above the level of the 
sea, and thus in the same latitude as Naples, stands higher 
than the crater of Mount Yesuvius. The localities are truly 
Alpine ; around on all sides are rocks, forests, and crystal 
streams, and above towers la Penalara, rising, according to 
some, above 8,500 feet. While nature is truly Spanish, here 
art is entirely French ; for the one-idead founder, Philip Y., 
could conceive no other excellence but that of Marly and Ver- 
sailles. In reserve and bigotry a Philip II., his hypychondriac 
shyness drove him into retirement, wanting nothing but his 
mass-book and wife, and thus becoming a puppet in her and her 
confessor's hands. He was no sooner fixed on the Spanish 
throne than he meditated its abdication, always harboring, like 



FUEXTE CONSERVATORY. 179 

Henry III. in Poland, a secret wish to retnrn and reign in 
France : it chanced that while hunting at Yalsain in 1722 he 
observed this granja, then a grange or farm-house of the Sego- 
vian monks of La Parrot, of whom he bought the site, and 
here he died, July 9, 1746, and here he is buried, carrying his 
hatred to Austrian recollections even to the grave. He would 
not associate with them even in the Panteon of the Escurial, a 
building which, in common with everything Spanish, he 
slighted. His was the fatal reign, when nationalism was 
effaced by French opinions, language, customs, and alliances. 

The palace, a thing of the foreigner, looks as if it had been 
moved by the slaves of the lamp from the bald levels of the 
Seine to a wild Spanish sierra : this sensual, theatrical, French 
chateau, is the antithesis of the proud, gloomy Escorial, on 
which it turns its back. A portion of the old Granja is still 
preserved near the Fuente, for the building is a thing of expedi- 
ents and patchwork, and so far a thing of Spain, A loug line 
of railing, like that of the Carrousel at Paris, divides three 
sides of a square. The centre body is destined to the royal 
family, and the wings to their suites. The facade fronts the 
garden, and is cheerful, although over-windowed and looking 
like a long Corinthian conservatory. The royal apartments are 
light, airy, and agreeable, without being magnificent, and in 
them strange events have taken place. Here, in January, 
1724, Philip Y. abdicated the crown, which he resumed in the 
next August at the death of his son, having been urged to 
become once more a king by his wife, who was very soon weary 
of private life : here, in 1783, Charles III. received the Count 
d'Artois, (Charles X.) when on his way to take Gibraltar, 
which he did not do. 

Here Ferdinand YIL, September 18, 1832, revoked the 



180 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

decree by which he had abolished the Salic law, and declared 
his daughter Isabel, born October 10, 1830, to be heiress to the 
crown, an act which cursed his ever ill-fated country with civil 
wars and a disputed succession. The secret history is said to be 
as follows : Don Carlos, his brother and heir presumptive, was 
married to a Portuguese princess, between whom and her sister, 
La Beira, a deadly palace war was waged by Carlota, the intrigu- 
ing wife of Don Francisco de Paula, a younger brother of the 
king. When Ferdinand married Christina, the Neapolitan 
cotorie, gained so much on the Portuguese one, that, on the 
queen's pregnancy being declared, Carlota, in order to oust the 
Beira's children, induced Tadeo Calomarde, the minister of 
justice, to suggest this change to the uxorious king, and the 
decree was smuggled through the royal closet without the 
knowledge of the other ministers : thus Ferdinand deprived his 
brother Carlos of his birth-right, that brother who had been the 
friend of his youth, and the companion of his French captivity, 
and who had refused, in 1827, to assist in his dethronement. 

In the autumn of 1832 Ferdinand fell dangerously ill in this 
same palace; the succession of Carlos was then quite certain; 
for Christina, at this crisis, had no party whatever, and she her- 
self drew up a revocation of the decree, which was signed, Sep- 
tember 18, by the guided hand of the unconscious testator; this 
second act was managed by the royal confessor and Alcudia, 
the principal mover being Calomarde, who now undid his for- 
mer work, in his terror at the certain veganza which the Portu- 
guese faction would have taken; and Antonini, the Neapolitan 
ambassador, confirmed his statement, and urged Christina to 
save herself. Ferdinand, two days afterwards, recovered by a 
miracle. As the king regained strength, the queen recovered 
courage, until, on October 31, the revocation was revoked, 



POETICAL JUSTICE. 181 



Christina throwing the whole blame of the past on Calomarde, 
who was forthwith turned out of office and Spain. The king, 
still weak, now delegated his authority to his wife, who had 
nursed him most tenderly ; and she instantly created a party by 
displacing all ultra Royalists and Carlists, or by substituting 
men favorable to moderate reforms. Ferdinand died September 
29, 1833; then ensued the terrible civil wars which have rent 
and impoverished poor Spain. 

This self-same palace, as if by poetical justice, became the 
theatre of another tragedy, by which Christina in her turn was 
deprived of her royal rights: here, August 12, 1836, intimi- 
dated by rude soldiery, headed by one Garcia, a serjeant, she 
was compelled to proclaim the democratical constitution of 
1812. The secret underplot of this intrigue was to bring about 
a change of the conservative ministry into one ultra-radical, and 
the final result, as might be expected, was the downfall and 
exile of the queen, and the restoration of things as they were. 

The gardens of the palace are the finest in Spain: the grand 
walk in front, called the parterre (for everything in name and 
style is French), looks over flowers, water, and mountains; here 
the fruits of Spring ripen in Autumn: as everything was arti- 
ficial, the cost was enormous, reaching to forty-five million 
piastres, the precise sum in which Philip Y. died indebted ; thus 
those palaces in Spain which the Austrian kings began, are 
unfinished, while those which their Bourbon successors raised, 
are not paid for. To form these gardens, rocks were leveled 
and hollowed to admit pipes of fountains and roots of trees, 
whose soil was brought up from the plains. It requires to be 
constantly renewed, and even then the vegetation is dwarf-like; 
but despots delight in enriching favorites without merit, and 
their felicity contrasts with the people's misery. 



182 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

San Ildefonso after all was but an imitation, and Delille, in 
praising its gardens, justly remarked, "Philippe defiait son 
ayeul et retragait la France." Although smaller, these gardens 
are far more real than their type; pure genuine water is their 
charm, which here is no turbid puddle forced up by a wooden 
waterwork, but a crystal distillation, fresh from a mountain 
alembic; the Cascada is a grand falling sheet, which, under the 
son of Castile, glitters like melted silver; it is supplied from a 
a large pond or resorvoir above, which, as at Aranjeuz, is 
modestly termed el Mar, the ocean. 

The gardens in which art rivals nature, are divided into the 
altos y bajos, high and low; they are laid out in a formal style, 
being planted in avenues, and decked with marble statuary; 
there are twenty-six fountains, the finest are those called los 
Banos de Diana, la Latona, or lianas, la Corrida de Caballos, 
the two Cascades, el Canastillo, los Yientos, la Andromeda, la 
Pomona, and el Neptuno, at which, says Mons. Bourgion, 
genius presides, and where he read Yirgil, and quoted " Quos 
ego." The Fama is the most famous, and shoots up water 130 
feet high (?). The fountains play on the first Sundays of the 
summer months, great festivals, and royal birth or saint days, 
when the traveler should visit this spot. The chief statues are 
the Apollo and Daphne, Lucretia, Bacchus, America, Ceres, 
and Milon; poor and second-rate, they are much more admired 
by Spaniards, who have very little fine marble sculpture, than 
they deserve; possibly because the work of foreigners, to wit, 
Messrs. Carlier, Pitue, Dumandre, and Bousseau. 

On Sunday afternoon while walking through the gardens, I 
was gratified by a sight of Christina, the youthful queen of 
Spain. Her appearance was that of a good-natured and portly 
female with a countenance of rather a pleasing expression of 



QUEEN ISABEL. 183 



joviality, and a person a little inclined to embonpoint. Her 
carriage and gait were graceful and easy, and as she received 
the salutations of the attendants who happened to be near, her 
face lighted up with a more benignant smile. I was not much 
interested in this modern Dido, for her conduct has always 
been of such an equivocal nature, that I felt no inclination to 
exchange places with Mufioz her lover, in order to play the 
JEneas on this occasion. 

Having spent a few days at this place I set out for the 
Escorial on the morning of the third day and crossed over by 
the Guadarama chain, on the road that leads from San Ildefon- 
sonso to this wonderful pile of masonry. 

THE ESCORIAL. 

Now for the Escorial — that eighth wonder added by Spain 
to the seven of the ancients — at once a convent, palace, tomb 
of royalty, and a museum of relics. It is Pelion on Ossa, 
for the granite blocks of which it is composed are piled upon 
the mountains of the Sierras from which they were taken. A 
medieval monastic fortress rising out of the upheaved ridges of 
primeval rocks which is conspicuous even amid the granite 
chains which surround. Here Philip II. built his prodigy, as an 
architectural response to a vow made after a victory in battle, 
and here that bigoted and monastic king, amid confessionals 
and monks ruled a kingdom by two words, his name. It was 
indeed a fit type of the spirit of the age, of the monster brood 
of the Inqusition, and a terrific offspring of the harrowed con- 
science of a fanatic. 

The idol of the monks and abode of celibates, it was only fit 
to be inhabited by drones. It now appeared a vast grand, gloomy 



184 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

supernatural pile, without purpose and without use, save to re- 
mind one of the broiling of its patron San Lorenzo, for its shape 
was that of a gridiron of which the palace is the handle. 

This grand and gloomy monastery or monstrosity of architec- 
ture — a convent, a palace and a tomb united under one roof — 
was well located amid the sterile and barren Sierras or moun- 
tains, from which its masses had been constructed. 

We should see, however, the things which are among the 
miracles of art and the wonder and admiration of mankind, 
otherwise we can form but a faint idea of the spirit of an age, 
in which bigotry was the genius, and tyranny the pride of kings. 

How fully the simple and noble proportions of the Church 
display the powerful advantages of the form of the Greek cross. 
Our view from the roof of this edifice furnished an adequate 
idea of the extent, magnitude and shape of the enormous grani- 
tic gridiron to which its plain conforms — a figure which is not 
only well adapted to the vast pile of its buildings, but equally 
commemorative of the roasting on a gridiron of San Lorenzo 
the saint, in honor of which this structure was first built. 

The whole country about this mass of stone, was barren, de- 
solate and without grandeur, the soil was poor and the boors 
who scratched it almost a savage ; yet this wilderness which 
disfigures the face of the earth, formed no bad approach to this 
gloomy pile, which, here, at the fifth league from Madrid, was 
seen in its dreary solitary state under the jagged and sullen 
Sierra, looming so large, that it is not lost even among the 
mountains. 

The east end of the chapel, and the projecting handle of the 
gridiron, mar the elevation; but as a whole it rises grandly from 
the gardens and terraces, embosomed in plantations, which 
fringe the edge of the desert, that extends all around from rose- 



THE GRIDIRON. 185 



less Las Rosas, where the road branches off to Guadarrama, 
and next to Galapagar, where the bodies of royalty rest the 
first night when on their way to their last home. Here and 
there long lines of walls enclose the now deserted dwarf covers 
of el Prado and la Zarzuda, and other preserves of theriomaniac 
royalty. On passing a bolder granite stone, a cross indicates 
the former dominion of the cowl ; hence, through poplars and 
pollarded elms the road ascends to the wind-blown hamlet, which 
looks paltry when compared to the single edifice, whose size is 
increased by the insignificance of so many smaller buildings. 
The Escorial is placed by some geographers in Old Castile, but 
the division of the provinces is carried on the crest of the 
Sierra, which rises behind it. 

The Escorial is now a shadow of the past, for the shell has 
lost its living monks, and those revenues whereby they lived. 
The enormous pile, exposed to the hurricane and mountain 
snows, was only to be kept in repair at a great outlay. In the 
five years after the sequestrations of convents more injury ensued 
than during the preceding two centuries. The rains penetrated 
through the damaged roof, and damp, sad destroyer, crept into 
the untenanted chambers. The eighth marvel of the world, 
which cost millions, was perishing for the sake of a few 
hundreds, until Arguelles, in 1842, destined a pittance out of 
the queen's privy purse, and stayed the immediate ruin, which 
outlays have been continued. The convent was stripped of its 
gold by the invaders ; and in July, when the Carlists, under 
Zariategui, advanced on Segovia, a hundred of the best pictures 
w r ere removed to Madrid. 

The correct title of the edifice is El red sitio de San Lorenzo 
el real de Escorial. The latter name is derived, by some, from 
Escorice the dross of the mines, which do not exist here. The 



186 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

edifice is a combined palace, convent and tomb, and for these 
purposes was it reared by Philip II., el prudente, who is called 
by the monks " the holy founder," and by other el Escorialense. 
His ostensible object was to carry out the will of his father in 
constructing a royal burial place, and to fulfil a panic-inspired 
vow made during the battle of St. Quentin, when he implored 
the aid of San Lorenzo, on whose day (August 10, 1557) it 
w T as fought. This saint was a native of Huesca in Aragon, and 
was put to death on a gridiron by Yalentianus, August 10, 261. 

The victory now claimed by the Spaniards for themselves 
alone was won by a foreign commander, by Philibert of Savoy, 
ably seconded by D'Egmont, with Flemish infantry and German 
cavalry, and better still by 8000 English, under Lord Pem- 
broke. The French were completely routed, and lost 3000 
men, 4000 prisoners, colors, baggage, and artillery. Had 
Philip II. pressed on, he might have captured Paris as easily as 
the Duke did after Waterloo ; but as he wanted means of mov- 
ing, like Castanos, and like him was not even on the field of his 
victory. He passed his time between two confessors, vowing 
convents, and swearing, if once safe, never to conquer twice. 
And this colossal pile is proportionate to his piety and fears, 
for ' celui qui faisait un si grand voeu/ said the Duke of Brag- 
anza, 'doit avoir eu grand peur;' and, in truth, it is the only 
lenefit which Spain derived from that important victory. Philip, 
tired of war's alarms, reposed under his borrowed laurels, and 
took to building, for which he was really fitted, being a man of 
taste and a true patron of artists. 

On the 13th of September, 1598, Philip II. died here, having 
lived in his vast convent fourteen years, half-king, half-monk, 
and boasting that from the foot of a mountain he governed 
half the world, old and new, with two inches of paper. The 



BIGOTED PHILIP. 181 



holy founder is compared to Solomon, who reared the temple, 
which was not permitted to men of blood, like David and 
Charles Y. 

The edifice disappoints at first sight ; for it has nothing in 
form or color which is either royal, religious, or ancient. The 
clean granite, blue slates, and leaden roofs, look new, as if built 
yesterday for an overgrown barrack or manufactory. The mul- 
titude of bald windows (they say that there are 11,000, in com- 
pliment to the Cologne Yirgins), the green shutters and 
chickets are offensive ; the windows of the entresoles look like 
port-holes, and from the thickness of the walls, they might be 
made real embrazures for cannon. The windows are too small, 
but had they been planned in proportion to the facades, the 
rooms lighted by them would have been too lofty, and thus ex- 
ternal appearance was sacrificed for internal accommodation : 
now they are spots which cut up breadth and interfere with the 
sentiment of solidity. Bigoted, indeed was Philip when he 
could sacrifice an opportunity of building a perfect palace, to 
an idle legend of a gridiron ; and poor Herrera forced to lower 
his genius to a plan worthy of the Beef-steak Club or Cobbett's 
register, was indeed the real martyr. The redeeming qualities 
are size, simplicity, and situation. It stands about 2700 feet 
above the level of the sea, and is part and parcel of the moun- 
tain out of which it has been constructed : it is so large that it 
looks, not a wart upon Olympus, but grand even amid the mighty 
buttresses of nature, which form an appropriate frame to the 
severe picture. The ashy pile looms like the palace of Death, 
who hence sends forth his blasts of consumption, which descend 
from these peeled Sierras to sweep human and vegetable life 
from the desert of Madrid. Cold as the grey eye and granite 
heart of its founder, this monument of fear and superstition 



188 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

would have been out of keeping, amid the flowers and sunshine 
of a happy valley. 

The edifice is a rectangular parallelogram, measuring 144 
feet from north to south, and 580 from east to west. The inte- 
rior is divided into courts, which represent the intersections of 
the bars of a gridiron, while the handle forms the royal resi- 
dence ; the feet are supplied by the four towers at the corners. 
The north and west sides, which front the village and moun- 
tains, have a fine paved Lonja, or platform : to the east and 
south, terraces look over formal hanging gardens and fishponds. 
The slopes below are well planted, especially la Herreria, and 
la Fresneda : the elms, according to Evelyn, were brought by 
Philip II. from England. The west, or grand facade faces the 
Sierra, for the convent turns its back on Madrid. On the 
north, Lonja is a subterranean gallery 180 feet long, ten high, 
and seven broad, tunnelled in 1710 by the monk Pon tones, in 
order to afford a communication during the winter hurricanes, 
which the guides say, once hoisted an ambassador, coach and 
all, into the air, to say nothing of the petticoats of monks, and 
women, blown up like balloons, and lords of the bedchamber, 
by the score, whirled round and round like dead leaves. The 
convent, on account of the winds, is not placed according " to 
the cardinal points ;" their violence is disarmed by its being set 
a little out of the square. The guides know by rote all the 
proportions. They repeat that the square of the building 
covers 3002 feet ; that in the centre is the chapel, surmounted 
by a dome ; that there are sixty-three fountains, twelve clois- 
ters, eighty staircases, sixteen court-yards, and 3000 feet of 
painted fresco. It was at once a temple, a palace, a treasury, 
a tomb house, and a museum ; " exceeding magnifical, of fame 
and glory throughout all countries." The grand central Doric 



THE PANTE0N. 189 



and Ionic portal is never opened, save to admit royalty, either 
alive or dead. The first patio is called de los Reyes, from the 
statues of "the Kings" of Judah, connected with the Temple 
of Jerusalem. They are seventeen feet high, and were all cut 
by Juan Bautista Monegro, out of one granite block, of which 
enough still remains to make up the dozen. The interior of the 
chapel, as seen from under the sombre grotto-like Templo, is the 
triumph of architecture ; it takes away the breath of the be- 
holder from its majestic simplicity. All is quiet, solemn, and 
unadorned ; no tinsel statues, or tawdry gildings, mar the per- 
fect proportion of the chaste Christian temple ; the religious 
sentiment pervades the whole of this house of God ; everything 
mean and trivial is forgotten. An awe, der schauer des erhaben, 
creeps over mortal man, who feels that the Holy of Holies 
overshadows him. 

Next descend into the Panteon, the term given by the Cath- 
olic Spaniards to a Christian burial vault. This is placed under 
the high altar, in order that the celebrant, when he elevates 
the host, may do so exactly above the dead. Philip, although 
he built the Escorial as a tomb-house for his father, prepared 
nothing but a plain vault, which, like that of Frederick the 
Great, at Potzdam, by the absense of tinsel pomp, becomes at 
once impressive and instructive, from the moral which such 
a change in such a monarch must suggest. Philip III., his 
silly son, began the present gorgeous chamber, which Philip 
IV. completed in 1654, moving in the royal bodies on the ltth 
of March. The entrance, with its gilt ornaments and varie- 
gated marbles, has nothing in common with the sepulchral sen- 
timent. Of the octagonal Panteon, there are twenty-six 
niches hollowed in the eight sides, with black marble urnas, 
which are too classical to create a Christian sentiment ; the 



190 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

names of the deceased are written on each ; those which are 
filled, are inscribed with the name of the occupant ; the empty 
ones await future kings, for death, which takes away from 
everything, enriches this greedy charnel-house. None are 
buried here save kings and the mothers of kings ; for eti- 
quette and precedence in Spain survive the grave ; and to 
preserve propriety the males are placed separately, and oppo- 
site to the females. The royal bodies are really deposited in 
their Urnas, as Philip IV., in 1654, opened that of Charles 
V., which was fouud to be perfectly preserved ; and Ferdinand 
VII., at his restoration, had the others examined, fearing that 
the republican invader might have rifled them, as elsewhere, 
either to insult dead royalty, or procure lead to destroy the 
living. 

The grand staircase, that feature in which modern architec- 
ture triumphs over the ancients, leads to an upper claustro : it 
was designed by Juan Bautista Castello, and lies to the west. 
It is painted in fresco by L. Cangiagi, L. Giordano, and P. 
Pelegrino. Here is the battle of St. Quentin, and the capture 
of the Constable Montmorency; while to the east Philip II. is 
seen planning the Escorial with his architects. On the ceiling 
is la Gloria, the apotheosis, or ascending into heaven, of San 
Lorenzo, with saints and the blessed, and among them Charles 
V. and Philip II. All this space was thus covered in seven 
months, by Giordano, too truly Luca fa presto, and his fatal 
facility and want of thought dealt the last blow to falling 
Italian art. 

The great library is placed above the porch of the Patio de 
los Reyes ; over the entrance is the common excommunication 
by the Pope of all who should steal the books, to which the 
invaders paid small attention. The arched rooms run from 



FABLES — ALLEGORY. 191 



north to south, and are 194 feet long, thirty-two wide, and thir 
ty-six high ; the pavement is marble, and the book-cases were 
executed by Jose Flecha, from Doric designs by Herrera. 
There are ample tables of marble and porphyry, provided for 
the use of readers ; and the ceilings are painted in fresco, blues 
and yellows predominate, and the colors are too gaudy for 
the sober books, while the figures, being too colossal, injure 
relative proportions ; but these errors pervade the ambitious 
works of Tibaldi, who out-heroded M. Angelo, without possess- 
ing a tithe of his grandeur or originality. Other frescos are 
by B. Carducho, and of subjects analogous to a library, and the 
personification of the liberal sciences. First, Philosophy shows 
the Globe to Socrates, and others ; below, is *the School of 
Athens ; then follows the Confusion of Tongues, Nebuchado- 
nezzor instituting the first Grammar School ; Rhetoric sur- 
rounded by Cicero, Demosthenes, and others. Further on, we 
see Dialectics, Arithmetic, Music, Geometry, Astronomy, and 
Theology, with appropriate groups and attributes ; but nothing 
is so tiresome as allegory. On the walls hang portraits of Her- 
rera, the architect of the Escorial, and of Arias Montano, its 
librarian, and the still more striking one of their master, Philip 
II., when old ; it is full of identity and individuality ; here we 
see him in the flesh and spirit, louring from his den, with his 
wan, dejected look, marked with the melancholy taint of his 
grandmother, and his bigot, grey eye, cold as frozen drops of 
morning dew. The grave seems to give up its dead, and the 
suspicious sacred bigot walks out of the frame into his own 
library. The books have their edges, not backs, turned to the 
spectator, having been thus originally arranged by Montano. 
The library, in 1808, before the invasion, is said to have con- 
tained 30,000 printed, and 4,300 MS. volumes. Joseph 



192 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

removed them all to Madrid, but Ferdinand VII. sent them 
back. 

The grand kitchen of the Escorial deserves the gastronome's 
inspection, who will grieve at the fireless gates, on which San 
Lorenzo might have been broiled : alas ! no smoke now issues 
from the chimneys. This department was once worthy of 200 
monks, who had little else to do but to eat. In the medical 
dispensary, or la Botica, was a fine Raphael-ware cistern, 
painted with the Judgment of Solomon. The Colegio is not 
worth visiting, although there is a whispering gallery which 
amuses silly folk, just like that under the Alhambra. From the 
kitchen to the royal residence the transition is easy, especially 
as it is placed m the handle of the gridiron, d mango de la par- 
rilla. Here the Catholic kings, whose life was one dull routine, 
spent six weeks every year, after leaving their summer quarter 
of San Ildefonso. They thus become the real handle of the 
man of the cowl, who had access to the despot at his first rising 
and at his last folding the arms to sleep. The courtiers, how- 
ever, even in the time of Philip II., thought of nothing but 
feastings and intrigues amatory and political ; thus mixing up 
the frivolities of a most profligate court with the outward show 
of monastic austerities. 

In a room adjoining Ferdinand VII. was born, October 14, 
1184 ; and here, October 29, 180T, he was nearly sacrificed by 
his own mother, and her minion Godoy ; Charles, his father, 
consenting to his own shame and their crimes. The prince was 
arrested for high treason, when he, coward-like, betrayed his 
advisers ; and this act, which would have ensured his and their 
ruin, saved them all, for the dreaded name of Buonaparte was 
found mixed up in the secret correspondence, and the craven 
court hushed the matter up. Visit also the humble apartments 



prescott's PHILIP. 193 



in which Philip II. lived, half a monk, as he reserved all his 
magnificence for the temple ; and then descend into the small 
room in which he died, September 13, 1598, aged seventy-two, 
having been carried there in order that his last glance might be 
directed to the altar : his lingering end was terrific in body and 
mind, covered, says Bratome, with lice-breeding boils ; he was 
haunted with doubts whether his bloody bigotry, the supposed 
merit of his life, was not in truth a damning crime. As a politi- 
cal personage, he was a failure ; under him the clay-footed 
colossus of Spanish power began to give way ; he quarreled 
with England, lost his invincible armada and the Low Coun- 
tries ; yet what a position was his, had he felt and been equal 
to the moment ! Ferdinand and Isabella had beaten down the 
Moor at home, while Charles V. had humbled France, and was 
master of Lombardy ; in quiet possession of peace and power, 
Philip might have been a legislator and a benefactor to his 
country : he might have given Spain a code of laws, covered 
with a net-work of roads and canals, and fixed the capital at 
Lisbon instead of Madrid. All of this he sacrificed to fight the 
battles of the Vatican and build a convent : but whatever his 
faults, which partly were the result of his political position and 
the spirit of the age, he at least was a true patron of art and 
artists ; he discovered or created talent to execute his mighty 
works ; his biography, attempted by Watson and Evaristo San 
Miguel, has yet to be really written, and it will soon occupy the 
pen of Mr. Prescott, who assuredly will do justice to his splendid 
subject. 

Before leaving the Escorial chamber, clamber up to the Silla 
del Rey, the eminence from whence Philip II. used to contem- 
plate the progress of his buildings. Yisit also the parks and 
plantations, which contrast agreeably with the desert beyond 

9 



194 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

them; and just look at the Casa del Campo, or Casita del 
JPrincipe, a miniature country house, too small indeed to live in, 
and jet too large to wear at a watch chain : it was built by- 
Juan de Yillanueva for Charles IY. when prince, and like that 
at Aranjuez, is the plaything of a spoilt infant. It is expen- 
sively ornamented with marble, marqueterie, gimcracks, ara- 
besques, and with poor portraits of the ignoble-looking Spanish 
Bourbons. The cabinet pictures are second rate ; they were 
formed for the rising Maecenas by his French and Italian valets ! 
The gardens are pretty, and form, with the neighboring walks, 
a favorite evening summer promenade, for the Escorial is fre- 
quented by many who fly from the scorching heats of Madrid 
to its cooler groves ; the difference of the thermometer Reau- 
mur often reaches seven degrees. Officials place their families 
here, and come over on the Saturdays, returning on Monday. 

The road back to the capital scarcely offers any x object to the 
eye except where you catch sight of El Pardo, another royal 
seat ; from which point Madrid appears to advantage in the 
distance. 

D E SULTORI A. 

In order properly to understand the peculiar situations of 
the places described in this chapter, you must imagine the plan 
of Madrid to be that of a parallelogram, with its corners 
rounded off ; and then it will be an easy task to follow us in 
the course of our wanderings after our return from the royal 
seats of La Granja and the Escorial. 

Beginning with the Prado, the resort of the citizens at 
evening, our walk often led us into the pleasant gardens and 
parterres of the Buen Retiro, which was built by the courtiers 



VIRGIN OF ATOCHA. 195 

to divert the mind of Philip from politics. This retreat was 
prettily laid out with flower pots, shade-trees, shrubberies, 
fountains and kiosks, and the grounds ornamented with statuary, 
vases, pogadas, artificial lakes and rivulets. From the highest 
point of the gardens a fine view of the city is obtained, 
embracing the range cf its twenty steeples. You there per- 
ceive the Oriental aspect of Madrid ; not far off you observe 
the Botanical Gardens, which have been planted in good taste. 
This section of the capital presents no less than three public 
squares with promenades, viz.: the Prado, the Botanical Gar- 
dens, and the Buen Retiro : thus affording sufficiently ample 
lungs for the healthy exercise of its numerous population. A 
better view over the city may be had from the Astronomical 
Observatory, a, building constructed in the shape of an Ionic 
temple. Nearly in front of it, I was pleased to observe 
a classical cistern, of Rafaelesque style, erected over the well- 
pit of the courtyard. It had an odd shape. Jumping over the 
stone-wall which marked the limits of these gardens, I de- 
scended to the well, and was soon within the inside of the 
Chapel of Atocha. The royal family come here to worship on 
Saturdays. The king and queen are seldom seen together at 
any other time, so little respect have they for each other, other 
than an observance of decency in behavior within the sight of 
their subjects. The Yirgin of the Atocha is the patron saint 
of Madrid. The entire front and side of the altar, and a great 
portion of the walls were covered with national flags, and parts 
of legs and arms, ex-votive offering to her ladyship, a virgin 
who is deemed by the Madrilefios possessed of the virtue of 
miraculous workings and powers. 

When the Queen of Spain was married, her wedding-dresses 
became a perquisite of the Yirgin. Ferdinand's uncle, Anto- 



196 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

nio, embroidered for her a petticoat. Considering the popular 
tradition and belief, he could not have done a more politic 
act, or one that would have come more home to the feelings 
of the masses at Madrid. 

While passing out of the chapel by a passage through the 
department of the convent formerly attached to the chapel, but 
now occupied as the barracks of the corps de guarde of this 
quarter, I took the liberty of lighting my cigar at the pipe 
of one of the soldiers ; the privilege of asking for fuego, or a 
light, being a matter of course in the street etiquette of the 
Spaniard; and having lighted, I strolled away from the city, 
outside the walls, and having passed under the gate of Atocha, 
walked along the avenues of "La Florida," the promenade 
which encircles the entire circuit of the walls of the city. 

Stopping awhile to admire the shady groves of the Casino, 
another garden, by the way-side, I did not fail to observe the 
various groupings of the people and animals, that were col- 
lected in spots, near the walls and the fountains. There was 
much in their positions, occupations, and actions, to amuse the 
mind, and somewhat to remind one of similar sights in the 
Orient. Near by, a poor peasant was under the hands of a 
barber, undergoing the operation of shaving, in the street; be- 
yond, groups of country people were engaged with their loaded 
carts ; and further, still, patient asses were quietly drinking 
from the running fountains. Water — one of the necessaries of 
life — is very abundant at Madrid, and the crowds about the 
various fountains present happy subjects for the artist's pencil. 
At the corner opposite the Atocha, the General Hospital 
spreads its vast pile, but the cool shades of the Casino invites 
me from the heat of the noon-day sun; where I rest until the 
meridian is over." Re-commencing my course, I pursued the 



DONKEYS AND BEGGARS. 19? 

line of the Casino until the gate of Toledo was passed, and 
thence, proceeding in the direction of the south, I walked 
down to the bed of a stream. The "Manzanares" — the great 
river — is the " only and the all" of Madrid ; it has, neverthe- 
less, a grand viaduct, although very little water runs under- 
neath, and that little, even, is confined in and under a shed, 
where busy and clamorous washerwomen cleanse the polluted 
rags of the city, and on its banks, which are clad with the many 
colored garments there, hung them out to dry. 

Although the river is without water, it has many large and 
noble bridges to cover. There is a tradition current, that its 
bed was once watered, in order that a king might cross it with- 
out fear of the dust. Notwithstanding, Madrid has no lack of 
good water, and a plenty of fine fountains. The mountain 
springs feed the sources of their supply ; and what is scarce at 
London and Paris, is plenty enough in this city. The magnifi- 
cent bridge of Saint Isidoro is a good stand to view the busy 
scenes of activity, which indicate the presence of a capital — 
washerwomen under the arches, peasants, with their curious 
carts, laden with produce, hurrying on to the gates. Study 
their costumes, and look at their peaked hats, with black but- 
tons ; they all wear bright red sashes around their waist, preserv- 
ing their stomachs and their money. Some have moccasin shoes, 
others are bare-footed, and wear splendid short jackets. Black 
flat hats, with rosettes, is the fancy of a few, who sport a Ro- 
man tunic. Presently a trabujero, or porter, trudges along 
with his ropes over his shoulders, and naked legs, wearing his 
blanket a la dragoon's jacket, and picturesquely too. Then 
what antiquated carts, sad looking donkeys, and ragged beg- 
gars. How like the East these scenes appear ! 



198 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 



THE MANZANARES. 

Three avenues now branch off from the circular plantation 
above the Casino: the two west lead to the Manzanares, the 
Thames of Madrid, and termed by euphuists Visconde de rios y 
Duque de Arroyos; but the Madrilenian cockneys are called 
Ballenatos hijos de Ballena, because they took an albarda or 
pack-saddle, floating down their noble river, for a whale; in 
reality the paltry streamlet, although, scarcely furnishing water 
for the washerwomen, has also fed the dry humor of Spanish 
wags and satirists from Quevedo, Gongora, and downwards for 
some centuries. It is entitled a river by courtesy, because it 
has bridges, which many real waters in Spain have not. The 
dilemma here has been whether to sell a bridge or buy water. 
These enormous Puentes, about which there is no mistake, are 
(as at Valencia) not quite pontes asinorum, since they serve as 
viaducts across the dip, and sometimes the rain torrents descend 
from the Guadarrama in such a body, that even their gigantic 
piers are threatened by the inundations; however, the deluge 
soon passes away, spent in its own fury: and whenever it rains, 
the stranger should run quickly down to see the river before it 
is gone. In summer the rivulet is scarcely so wide as its name 
is long, and they say the bed was once watered when Ferdinand 
VII. passed it, to prevent his being annoyed by the dust. The 
dry-shod foot-passenger crosses it without knowing it, as in 
Lucan (ix. 914): — 

" Inscius in sicco serpentum pulvere rivum 
Transierat, qui Xanthus erat." 

Gongora, besides sundry profane and scurvy jests, likened this 
river-god, whose" urn is so often dry, to the rich man in flames 



PIOUS BARGEMEN'. 199 



calling for one drop of water. Tirso de Molina's epigram com- 
pares it to the long vacations, in summer, of universities : — 

" Como Alcala y Salamanca, 
Teneis y no sois Colegio, 
Vacaciones es Verano 

Y curso solo en Invierno." 

The water of this anatomy, which has the form of a river 
without the circulation, is enticed into holes by naiads, to whom 
are committed the shirts and shifts, Los jpanos mcnores of Mad- 
rid. The lavation, especially under the royal palace by the 
tree-fringed banks, is garrulous and picturesque, for brightly 
do the parti-colored garments glitter in the sun. There are 
also some baths in which the Madrilencs, in summer, cool their 
parched bodies. 

The Manzanares rises about seven leagues from Madrid, and 
enters the Jarama near Vacia Madrid. Down stream east, is the 
unfinished canal, projected in 1668, to connect Madrid with the 
Tagus, which was begun, as usual, eagerly, and, as usual, soon 
neglected, and only two leagues are finished. The stagnant 
waters are a reservoir of fever; thus becoming a curse, not a 
benefit, and adding to the insalubrity of sickly Madrid: there are 
a few buildings, and also a chapel for pious bargemen who bring 
lime to the capital. There are four bridges over the Manza- 
nares: one of wood at the extreme east end crosses over to the 
hermitage of San Isidro del Campo. The grand pilgrimage to 
this male patron of Madrid, takes place on May 15, and is a 
truly national scene, where may be studied most of the cos- 
tumes, songs, and dances of the provinces, as the natives settled 
at Madrid congregate in parties with true local spirit, each pre- 
serving their own peculiarities. Booths are erected, and eat- 



200 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

ing-houses in which the Gaita Gallega resounds with the Gut- 
tarra Andaluza; vast numbers of the saints' small pig-bells, 
made of clay, are sold; they avert lightning when well rung; 
this fair is to the Madrilenian what Greenwich is, on Easter 
Monday, to the Cockney; the elder refer to it with pleasure in 
recollection of their sweet days of youth, fun, and frolic. 

San Isidro is a very different saint from San Isidoro. The 
former (like St. Cuthbert, the tutelar of Durham) was a day- 
laborer, whence he is called el Labrador. Isidro, instead of 
minding his plough, passed his time in a siestose consideration 
of the sainted namesake, having been born on the very day 
that San Isidoro's body was removed to Leon. Angels, during 
his ecstacies, come down from heaven and did his work; hence, 
say the chroniclers, the still-existing miraculous fertility of the 
environs of Madrid. Philip III., having been cured by touch- 
ing his body, obtained from the pope the canonization of this 
tutelar, on whom Lope de Yega wrote a Justa Poetica, or eulo- 
gistic poem, which is much more serious than the ballads made 
by Southey on this saint. He was born in the tenth century; 
the son of Ibn (the son) de Vargas; he married Maria de la 
Cabeza, a hind's daughter, and also a saint. His miracles were 
agricultural ; thus he found out water-springs, raised corn, but 
without ploughing, and horses from the dead; his life has been 
thus summed up : — 

" Tierras, virtudes y cielo 
Labre, cultive, cogi, 
Con piedad, con fe, con zelo." 

The angels of heaven came down to share his hospitality; 
whereupon his olla was miraculously replenished. He appeared 
to Alonso VIII., in the form of the peasant who showed the 



GARROTE BOW-STRING. 201 



path at Navas de Talosa. "When Isabel la Catolica, having 
been cured by his intervention, went to pray at his tomb, one 
of her maids of honor, kissing his feet, bit off his second toe as 
a relic, and forthwith lost her powers of speech; but on eject- 
ing the mouthful, recovered her pristine fluency. 

Returning to the Manzanares, I passed, without crossing it, 
the bridge and viaduct El Puente de Toledo, which was built in 
1135, by Philip Y., and is 385 feet long by 36 wide. [Nothing 
can be worse in taste, although San Isidoro and his wife, adorn 
the scene, looking out for water. Here the public executions 
take place, and generally by the garrote, a sort of strangling 
machine based on the Oriental bow-string; as a more agreeable 
spectacle, the artist and lover of picturesque peasantry should 
visit this gate early in the morning, and sketch the groups of 
market-people, their wares and beasts, who congregate around, 
awaiting the ceremony of the derecko de Puertas, the old Sisa. 
Their indignation at the Resguardos gives animation to their 
eyes and gestures. 

Crossing the Manzanares are the avenues and the La Florida, 
which continue on the road to the Escorial, and were a very 
fashionable promenade in the reign of Charles III. 

PALACE. 

Avoiding this new Paseo, and turning out of the Florida, at 
the gate San Vicente, I ascended to the truly royal palace 
rising above the valley and sparkling like white marble on a 
clear blue sky : it certainly is one of the most magnificient in 
the world. It has two open plazas: that to the east, del 
Oriente, is a sort of Frenchified Place de Carousel, for here 
the invaders demolished eighty-seven houses, and left the space 

9* 



202 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

a desert of dus.t and glare, and impassable in the clog-days. 
Ferdinand VII. removed the ruins, had the locality leveled, 
and commenced a magnificent theatre and colonnade. The 
site, indeed, was very convenient for the king, being close to 
his residence ; but by no means so for the citizens in general, 
as the place is in a distant angle of the town. 

In the centre of a circular garden is one of the finest eques- 
trian statues in the world, which was moved in 1844 from the 
Buen Retiro gardens. It represents Philip IV. mounted on his 
war charger, and is a solid Velazquez. Montaftes carved the 
model in wood, while the bronze was cast at Florence, in 1640, 
by Pedro Tacca. It is nineteen feet high, and 180 cwt., yet the 
horse curvets, supported by the hind legs, and the mane and 
scarf absolutely float in the air. As this fine thing was compara- 
tively lost in the Retiro, it was often before proposed to move it 
into Madrid ; but the Minister Grimaldi declared that to be too 
great an honor for any Austrian king, and protested that he 
would only consent if the head of Philip were cut off, and the 
baboon, Bourbon, one of Charles III. substituted — a panto- 
mimic change worthy of a Grimaldi. 

The royal palace is enormous, but does not satisfy when 
we approach it nearly. Were it not that here is the premier's 
office, the palace would have the deserted look of the uninhabited 
St. James, but the throng of pretendicnles, empleados, cesantes, 
cialeteros, y demas pordioseros, gives life to. the scene. It occu- 
pies the site of the original Alcazar of the Moors, which 
Enrique IV. made his residence. This was burnt down on 
Christmas-eve, 1734, when Philip V. determined to rebuild a 
rival to Versailles, and Felipe de Jubara, a Sicilian, prepared 
the model. The architect judiciously wished to change the site 
for the San Bernardino hill, but Elizabeth Farnese, the queen, 



HANGING GARDENS. 203 



whose ambition it was to advance her children, grudged the 
expense, and combined en camarilla with the minister Patifio ; 
and so many difficulties were made, that Jubara died of hope 
deferred. Philip then directed Juan Bautista Sachetti, of 
Turin, to prepare a smaller and less expensive plan, which, the 
queen not objecting, was adopted, April T, IT 37. 

It is a square of 4T0 feet each way, by 100 feet high, but 
the wings and the hanging-gardens are unfinished. The rustic 
base is of granite ; the window-work of white stone of Col- 
menar, which in the bright sun glitters as a fair palace of 
marble. Yisit it also at moonlight, when, in the silent death- 
like loneliness, the pile looms like a ghostly thing of the 
enchanter, on a castle of snow, On the heavy balustrade above 
stood a series of heavier royal statues, which were taken down 
and sent to Toledo and Burgos, or buried in the vaults, from 
whence some have been taken out to adorn the Plaza del 
Oriente. The grand staircase here, is noble in design and easy 
of ascent ; but, as in some other palaces, & E scalier derobe, the 
back stair case j is the most frequented. It is said, when Buona- 
parte ascended these steps, that he told his brother Joseph, 
" Vous seriez mieux loge que inoi." He laid his hand on one 
of the white marble lions, exclaiming, " Je la tiens enfin, cette 
Espagne, si desiree !" So spake Caesar on landing, " Teneo te, 
Africa !" But the French, like the Romans, at last discovered 
that Spain is a morsel easier to be swallowed than digested : 
"Plus est provinciaru retinere quam facere" (Floras ii. IT, 8). 
The Duke shortened poor Pepe's tenure : he entered Madrid 
in triumph after the victory of Salamanca, on the 12th of 
August, 1812, and was lodged in this palace. "It is impos- 
sible," wrote he from it, " to describe the joy manifested by the 
inhabitants upon our arrival, or their detestation of the French 



204 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

yoke." That yoke, removed by a stranger, was replaced by 
a native Spaniard, by Ballesteros ! 

Nothing is more tiresome than a palace, a house of velvet, 
tapestry, gold, and a bore. Yet this is a truly royal one, in 
which the most precious marbles are used prodigally in floor- 
ings and doorways. The multitudinous French clocks were 
the especial hobby of Ferdinand VII. On these walls hung 
those glorious pictures now in the Museo, which that monarch 
ejected to hang up French papers. The vaults and store-rooms 
were filled with fine old furniture : but since his death a gigantic 
pillage has gone on as regards jewels and every thing of port- 
able value. The chief saloon is called de los jEmbajadores, or 
the Reception or Throne room, and its decorations are indeed 
most princely ; the crystal chandeliers, colossal looking-glasses, 
cast at San Ildefonso, the marble tables, crimson velvet and 
gold, will enchant lovers of fine furniture ; here the sovereigns 
of the Spains, when alive, receive on grand occasions, and when 
dead are laid out in state. There we beheld the " beloved" 
Ferdinand VII., his face, hideous in life, now purple like a ripe 
fig, dead and dressed in full uniform, with a cocked hat on his 
head, and his stick in his hand. 

The ceiling is painted by Tiepolo, with the " Majesty of 
Spain," the virtues of the kings, and the people in the different 
costumes of the provinces. The most admired ceilings are the 
apotheosis of Trajan and the Aurora, in the twenty-first room, 
by Mengs, the revivor of fresco ; but oil-painting he could not 
revive from the leaden drowsiness in which it lay. There is a 
4to description of these frescos by Francisco Fabre, Mad., 1829. 

The views from the windows which overlook the river are 
true landskips of the Castilian school ; the slopes under the 
royal eye are left in ragged mangy deformity ; how the magic 



NIGHT ATTACK. 205 



wand of the Moor would have clothed the waste with flowers 
and verdure, and raised hanging gardens and fountains, in 
imitation of those on the declivity of the Alhambra, which, 
although artificial, rival nature herself. Now all is abandoned : 
below trickles the Manzanares, with its great name and scanty 
stream ; beyond stretch the ragged woods of Casso del Campo, 
and then the hopeless tawny steppes, bounded by the icy 
Gaudarrama, whose sharp outline cuts the bright sky, and 
whose snowy heights freeze the gale ; all is harsh and torrid, 
colorless and blanched, but not yet devoid of a certain savage 
grandeur. Yisit the site of the night attack of October 7, 
1841, when the Gallo-Christinos endeavored to carry off the 
young queen. The plot, planned at Paris, was headed by 
Pezuela, and Concha, the brother-in-law of Espartero, who, 
when his scheme failed, ran away and hid himself under one of 
the bridges of the Manzanares, while Diego Leon, a brave 
sabreur and his tool, was taken and executed. The regent 
pardoned the other criminals, who repaid him by conspiring to 
his ruin : nay, Concha hunted his benefactor even to the bay 
of Cadiz, and, had he caught him, assuredly would have put 
him to death. The regiment de la Princesa fired all night at the 
handful of Alabardoros ; only four men were killed and wounded 
between them, and Col. Dulce, who beat back the conspirators, 
was turned out of his place by Christina. The palace, from 
standing on an eminence, exposed directly to the winds from 
the snowy Guadarrama, is so bitter cold in winter that the 
sentinels are constantly frozen to death. 

Yisit La Real Cochera and Las Caballerizas. These enor- 
mous coach-houses and stables lie to the north-east : the latter, 
once filled with mules and horses which conveyed the kings to 
their daily shootings. The carriages are of all forms and ages, 



206 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

from the cumbrous state-coach to the Cupid-bedizened car, from 
the cocke de colleras to the equipage de Paris and the hearse. 

LA ARMERIA. 

Now return to the south facade of the palace, and visit La 
Armeria real. The first entrance is very striking, and worthy 
of this land of the Cid and chivalry : it carries one back to 
the heroic age of Spain. All down the middle of the saloon 
are drawn up equestrian figures, while armed knights stand 
against the walls, surrounded in every direction with imple- 
ments of war and tournament. Above hang banners taken 
from the enemy, while the walls are lined with coats of armor. 

Observe the nineteen suits of armor of Charles V., chased 
in fine cinque-cento. On the front of every one is engraved the 
Yirgin, his tutelar, and at the back Santa Barbara — Isis and 
Astarte. The latter saint is the patroness of Spanish artillery, 
as Santa Teresa is generalissima of infantry. Santa Barbara 
is also invoked by all the old women of Spain, in thunder- 
storms, for she directs the artillery both of heaven and of earth. 
The suits of Philip II. are very splendid, especially those 
worked in black and gold. The armor of the Cid is fictitious; 
not so that of Isabella, which she wore at the siege of Granada. 
The monogram Isabel is worked on the visor, and she must 
have been a portly dame. Ferdinand, her husband, dressed 
in bran new red breeches, and armed in black and gold armor, 
is mounted on a war-horse, while San Fernando is kept in a 
case. His nether man is altogether apocryphal, notwithstand- 
ing which many indulgences are granted to all who behold it 
with an implicit faith. 

Some of the shields on the walls are superb. Observe one 






RICH SHIELDS AND SWORDS. 201 

with a Medusa's head ; and another studded with cameos, and 
given to Philip II. by a Duke of Savoy. The armor of the 
Great Captain is authentic ; there are four suits, all richly 
chased, with a badge of two palm trees issuing from a coronet. 
Remark the peculiar coal-scuttle helmet of the Rey Chico, and 
a suit of armor, worked with silver filagree, given to Philip II. 
by the city of Pamplona. Observe the armor of Guzman el 
Bueno, of Fernan Cortes, of John of Austria, and worn at 
Lepanto ; of Columbus, black and white, with silver medal- 
lions ; also a suit of a German elector, heavy, square, and 
short-legged — there is no mistaking the country of the wearer. 
The smaller suits, for Infantes and young heroes, are military 
playthings. The Turkish banners were mostly taken at Lepan- 
to. The collection of guns belonging to Charles III. and 
Charles TV., is worthy of these royal gamekeepers ; many are 
inlaid with jewels : one was a present from Buonaparte, who 
soon after accepted from his friend his crown and kingdom. 

The collection of swords is much more interesting ; for this 
weapon Spain, has always been celebrated. 

There are the swords of St. Ferdinand, of Ferdinand and 
Isabella, and of the " Great Captain f the latter was used 
when knighthood was conferred on distinguished persons. Next 
remark those of Charles V., Philip II., Fernan Cortes, and 
Pizarro, in a steel sheath. The implements of tournaments and 
hunting are extremely curious and complete, as the German 
love of heraldry, and the lists, nourished in the congenial soil 
of the Castiles, the land of personal prowess, and the hidalgo, 
and Paso Honroso : here, by the way, is the sword of Suero de 
Quinones. The saddles and leather shields of the Moors are 
curious ; the latter, or Adargas, although light, resisted spear 
and sword : two hides are cemented together by a mortar, com- 



208 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

posed of herbs and camel-hair ; the forms are ovals, and orna- 
mented with three tassels, and the umbo, or knob : they are the 
unchanged Cetrce of the Carthagenians and Iberians. 

Now cross the Calle de Segovia to las Vistillas, long the 
town residence of the Dnques de Infantado, and where Ferdi- 
nand and Isabella lived. From the windows did Ximenez, 
when asked by what authority he assumed the Regency, point 
to his artillery and soldiers in the court below. 

Proceed next into the intricate Prout-like jumble of lanes, 
the old Moreria, which is now thought a parenthesis of barbar- 
ism in an age of civilization : there is a plan of opening a wide 
street to the Calle de Segovia ; all this side of Madrid, which 
hangs over the river, was the ancient town, and it contrasts 
with the newer portions, near and beyond the Puerto, del 
Sol 

Now visit la Plaza de Cebada, the forage, the " hay," the 
" grass market," and where executions formerly took place. 
The artist and naturalist will come here to study costume and 
produce ; the scene is busy, noisy, and pictorial. Those who 
wish to see old Madrid, and the quarters of the Populacho, may 
now thread the Calles del D. de Alba, Jesus y Maria, to the 
Lavapies : all this locality is a sort of Seven Dials. The Calle 
de Zurita, de la Comadre, Campillo de Manuela, etc., are, and 
have been, the homes and styes of Manolos and Manolas, Chis- 
peros, Gitanos, Chalanes, and other picturesque rogues since the 
days of Quevedo, although, alas ! every day they are abandon- 
ing their national costume — 

" En Madrid se juntaron 
Cuantos pobres y pobras, 
A lafuente del plojo 
En sus Zahurdas moran." 



CHARITY HOSPITALS. 209 



Those who have no taste for a Castilian St. Giles, may pass up 
la Latiaa to San Isidra el Real, in the Calle de Toledo. This, 
once a Jesuits' college, was built in 1651, and, now a parish 
church, is called la Colegiata ; here bad taste and churriguer- 
ismo reign undisputed. This convent was attacked by the Ma- 
drid mob, July 11, 1834, who murdered the monks, because 
they had caused the cholera. 

Yisit Las Recogidas, or Santa Maria Magdalena. No 
woman can take the benefit of this institution without having 
duly qualified by undoubted guilt, and none, once admitted, 
can get out except to take the veil or marry. Here also is a 
quarter in which those ladies are confined whose relations think 
them likely to be benefited by a little restraint; an institution 
which might be usefully extended to some capitals out* of 
Spain. 

The Foundling Hospital, La Inclusa, in the Calle de los Em- 
baj adores, is so called from a much-venerated image of the 
Yirgin, which was brought by a Spanish soldier from Enkuissen 
(Enchusen), in Holland; here more than 1200 infants, sinless 
children of sin, are annually exposed by their unnatural parents. 
The lying-in asylum for these mothers, in the Calle del Rosal, 
is called, as if in mockery, Nuestra Senora de la JEsperanza, — 
what hope is there for such deserted offspring ? the more honest 
vulgar, however, call it el Pecado mortal, the deadly sin : here 
unmarried women are confined in both senses of the word. 

Yery few of the palaces of the Grandees contain anything 
worth notice. They were plundered by the invaders, and their 
owners are not over-gifted with taste. Spain, indeed, is a 
shadow of departed greatness, and of all shadows none are 
more unsubstantial, with few exceptions, than the present hold- 
ers of the time-honored titles of her heroic age. To be a 



210 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

Grande it almost now seems necessary to be chico, or small in 
person and intellect. From never allying themselves with the 
commonalty, they stand alone like barren palm-trees and on the 
surface; they have no deep roots intertwined with the social 
system, nor the education or talent to carve out for themselves 
a position. Uneducated and untraveled, these popinjay butter- 
flies are fit only to swell the levees, the Besamanos of the court, 
where, true Palaciegos, the insects glitter in embroidery and 
decoration. Madrid is indeed the court of fine names, gilt gin- 
gerbread, and trappings of honor, as the forms of real strength 
are resorted to, in order to raise the apparent splendor of a 
faded country, to mask the absence of living spirit by the sym- 
bol: nowhere, not even at cognate Naples, is there a greater 
prodigality of utterly undeserved titles and decorations. The 
meaner the man the more individual insignificance requires to 
be plastered over. The badge confers, indeed, small honor, 
but not to have it is a disgrace. Formerly, said the shrewd 
Populacko, rogues were hung on crosses, now crosses are hung 
on rogues. 

The largest of the Grandees' houses, and a real poor house, 
is that of the Duque de Medinaceli, Casa de San Geronimo : it 
looks like ten houses taken from Bond street. The plate and 
armory were appropriated by the French. Here are kept, 
in scandalous neglect, some antiques which were brought from 
the Casa de Pilatos at Seville. They are not of high art : 
observe a fawn, a Mercury, and Apollo. Here are two very 
early cannon (see Baza, p. 169): the library, once open to the 
public, is now food for worms. The Conde de Oflate has also 
a good house ; so has the Duque de Hijar, and the Marquis de 
Astorga. 

Spain, having denied bread to Cervantes when alive, has 



CERVANTES. LA BARCA. 211 



recently given him a stone ; a monument has been raised in the 
Plaza de las Cortes, with his statue modeled by Antonio Sola 
of Barcelona, and cast in bronze by a Prussian named Hofgar- 
ten. He is dressed in the old Spanish costume, and hides 
under his cloak his arm mutilated at Lepanto, which he never 
did in life, it being the great pride of his existence. The reliefs 
on the pedestal of Don Quixote's adventures were designed by 
one Piguer; the cost was defrayed out of the Bula de Cruzada: 
thus Cervantes, who when alive was ransomed from Algiers by 
the monks of Merced, when dead owed to a religious fund this 
tardy monument. The street in which he lived is now called 
Calle de Cervantes. The bones of Calderon de la Barca were 
moved April 19, 1841, from La Calatrava nunnery, and inter- 
red in the Campo Santo de San Andrea. 



ENVIRONS. 

The immediate environs of Madrid offer small attraction, as 
the city stands alone in its desert solitude. There are no 
daughter suburbs, no Belgrave Squares, no Nouvelle Athenes ; 
few are the villas, the rures in urbe, which tempt the citizens 
beyond the mud wall of their paradise. The rare exceptions 
are mostly royal property ; one of the prettiest is la Moncloa, 
on the right of the road to the Escorial, and overlooking the 
bed of the Manzanares. It once belonged to the Alva family ; 
it was purchased by Ferdinand VII., who removed to it the 
porcelain manufactory after the French had destroyed la 
China. Here his Majesty made some bad, coarse, and very 
dear pots and pans. 

El Pardo is a royal sitio or shooting-box, distant two leagues 
on the Manzanares. It was built by Charles V., and added to 



212 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

by Charles III., whose favorite preserve it was : the covers 
extend to fifteen leagues in circumference. The royal apart- 
ments are commodious, with some of the ceilings painted in 
fresco by Galvez and Ribera. Some of the glass chandeliers 
are large and fine. There is a small theatre in the building. 

The Alameda is an attempt at a villa, erected on the road to 
Guadalajara by the late Countess of Osuna, at an enormous 
expense. On the evenings of summer holidays the citizens 
venture outside the gate of Alcala to la Ruinta del Espiritu 
Santo, or to Chamberi outside the gate of Bilbao, where they 
refresh themselves in second-rate public-houses with cheap 
adulterated wines. On a hill, about three-quarters of a league 
on the road to Toledo, is Caravanchel, or rather the Car a- 
vancheles, for the two villages close adjoin each other, being 
distinguished by the epithets upper and lower, de arriba y 
de abajo. They are to Madrid what Highgate and Hamp- 
stead are to London, and are frequented by the citizens on 
holidays. The best hotel, la Vista Alegre, was so called from 
the cheerful view over the nakedness of the land. Here 
Christina created a villa, where royal and rural fetes are given. 
Christina, although bred and born at beautiful Naples, was so 
fond of this place, that she took the title of Condesa de Vista 
Alegre, on departing quasi incognita from Valencia, after her 
abdication, and when her throne and children were left behind; 
but the classical and national denomination of the " rueful 
countenance" would better have suited the sadness of the 
occasion and her own forced errantry. 

No one should quit Madrid without calling upon Sefior Mad- 
razo, the director of the Madrid Museum, who possesses a 
gallery of valuable paintings, among which are some fine speci- 
mens of Vandykes, Rubens, and Titians. Many pleasant hours 



RE SIDENCE — CLIMATE. 213 



may be spent in conversation with this gentleman and his sons, 
who are painters of some merit, and have in their possession an 
original Raphael, which is considered second only to "la 
Perla," in the Museum. 

Madrid, as a residence, is disagreeable and unhealthy, alter- 
nating between the extremities of heat and cold, or, according 
to the adage, three months of winter and nine of hell, tres meses 
de invierno y nueve del infierno. The mean annual winter tem- 
perature is 43° I', but every year, for several nights, the ther- 
mometer descends many degrees below 32°, and the rivers are 
covered with ice, although it generally disappears in the day. 
The mean temperature of the three summer months is 76° 2'; 
but during the Solano, the south-eastern wind, it frequently 
rises to 90° or even 100° in the shade, while in the sun the 
heat and glare are African ; to this are added the blasts of 
Siberia, for being placed on a denuded plateau, it is exposed to 
the keen blasts which sweep down from the snowy Guadar- 
rama, the nursery of consumption and pulmonia. Hence the 
summer is the most dangerous period, when the pores are open; 
for often, during a north-east wind, the difference of tempera- 
ture on one side of a street to the other more than reaches 20°, 
and the incautious stranger turning out of a spot which is 
roasted by the sun, passes from an ice house to an oven, is 
caught at a corner by iEolus, and incontinently forwarded to 
the cemetario. It was of the Colico d& Madrid, a peculiar 
inflammation of the bowels that sickened Murat in 1808, and 
the superstitious populace, according to Foy, ascribed it to 
divine vengeance : but no Nemesis then struck the blow, for 
the disease is proverbial, and 

" El aire de Madrid es tan sotil 
Que mata a un hombre, j no apaga a un candil," — 



214 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

the subtle air, which will not extinguish a candle, puts out a 
man's life. Dry, searching, desiccating, and cutting, this assas- 
sin breath of death pierces through flesh and bone and marrow: 
hence the careful way in which the natives cover their mouths, 
the women with handkerchiefs, the men by muffling themselves 
up in their cloaks, embozandose en las capas. The average of 
death at Madrid is as one in twenty-eight, while in London it 
is as one in forty-two : no wonder, according to Salas, that 
even the healthy of those born there live on physic — 

" Aun las personas mas sanas, 
Si son en Madrid nacidas, 
Tienen que hacer sus comidas, 
De pildolas y tisanas." 

It is particularly fatal to young children, during dentition. So 
much for this " Buena Madre " — mais bien Madrasta — this good 
mother, from whose tender mercies Moya derives the name of 
Madrid. 

Before leaving the capital, as I was strolling under the shady 
groves which line the walls of the city, having passed beyond 
the gate of Bilboa, and on to the promenades in that vicinity, 
my attention was attracted towards a troup of young children 
who preceded me, singing and dancing in cadence of the casta- 
nets which they clapped together between their fingers. On 
ascertaining the cause of their merriment, I was surprised to 
learn that they were just returning from the burial of one of 
their young playmates, and on this occasion were performing 
the customary ceremonies after depositing the body in the 
tomb. They rejoiced at an event which had borne their friend 
to Paradise, having been taught to believe that little children 
were happy there ; we then perceived the force of the words, 



ROYAL SUMMER SEAT. 215 



" Blessed are they that mourn f and, " It is better to go to 
the house of mourning than to the house of feasting." How 
much this custom resembled that of the ancient Egyptians, as 
shown in the depictions of their funereal feasts on the walls of 
Thebes. The relics of this custom remain in Spain, and can be 
easily traced from the Egyptians to the Arabs, and by means 
of the Moors into Spain. By continuing this walk, we soon 
reached the quiet shades and cool retreats of the Fontana Cas- 
tillafia. This Spanish grove of Egeria was the resort of lovers, 
who came there to consult the divinity of the lakes and waters, 
whilst the young moon lent her enchanting smiles to lighten 
the gentle flames of love. It was with this picture of beauty 
and delightful landscape that we chose to terminate our prome- 
nades about the city, for on the morrow we proposed to leave 
the capital, and seek the more secluded shades of Aranguez, 
and the remains of the renowned town of Toledo. 

TO ARANGUEZ. 

The silvery tones of the old bell of Xuestra Seiiora del buen 
Suceso, struck the hour of five, on the morning that we left 
the capital ; an augury of good success for our journey to 
Aranguez as we passed out of the gate of Toledo. The dip 
in the road over the desert-like plain outside, was crossed by a 
superb viaduct, where the bed of the Manganares was spanned 
by the Chirruguesque bridge of San Isadore. At that early 
hour the road was alive with the carts and wagons of the 
market people hurrying on to the opening of the city's gates. 
Their various costumes and bustling activity relieved the monot- 
ony of an highway road, which, but for the fact of its being 
royal and good in the morning, would have been dreary and 



216 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

dusty and common at noon. A vast and uncultivated plain 
stretches from Madrid to the happy valley of Castile. Grad- 
ually losing sight of Madrid behind the last low eminence 
on the route, at length you see only a portion of the mod- 
ern and un-Spanish aspect of its low domes, and watch its 
receding extinguisher-shaped spires, which are at last but 
faintly visible, and, until, it is entirely hidden from the sight 
at Los Angelos, the last relay where devils would not live if 
they could help it. Next comes the Hermitage and Tele- 
graph of Pinto, which is considered to be the central point 
of the Peninsula. Then the ascent commences and the oasis 
Aranjuez, with its green meadows, gardens, nightingales, 
and water-springs, appears, while its approach becomes doubly 
delightful from the contrast with the tawny nakedness of 
the soil. This Tempe of the Spaniard, with its avenues of 
foreign elms, and the varied contrasts of lively and dark 
foliages was truly refreshing to the eye after the dull and bron- 
zen skies and heated plains around the sterile region of 
Madrid. A noble stone bridge built by Charles III., is 
carried across the Jarama, and leads into the verdurous 
walks of the Royal street. Driven upon this we were led 
across the iron supension bridge that crosses the Tagus, and 
deposited in the grand plaza near the palace, in the middle 
of a hollow square which was blazing with a sun-burned 
brick-dust architecture. This was Aranjuez — with its cot- 
tages and out-houses, trianons and statues, having nothing to 
relieve its dullness but its fountains, its pleasant gardens, 
and the following description of its history. 

Aranjuez — ara jovis — originally the summer residence of 
Lorenzo Suarez de Figuerra, Maestre de Santiago, became a 
royal property when the mastership was merged in the crown 



HOME FOR OWLS. 217 



under Ferdinand and Isabella. Charles V., in 1536, made it a 
shooting villa, and Philip II., employed Herrera to construct 
additional buildings. Much, however, was burnt by a fire, and 
more taken down by Philip Y., who rebuilt the place a la Fran- 
gaise. There the court resides every spring until June, when 
the place ceasing to be pleasant or healthy, as the heats act 
upon the waters, and fill the air with fever and ague, then roy- 
alty departs, leaving the villages to dullness and pestilence. 

According to the people of Madrid, the ralley of Aranjuez 
is a Tempe, and, while the Escorial is the triumph of art, this 
is of nature ; and certainly, to those born amid the silent, 
treeless, arid Castiles, this place of water-brooks, gardens, sing- 
ing-birds, and verdure, is a happy change, although in America 
the place would not be thought much of. Now, as if in a spirit 
of contradiction, while at Madrid there is a fine palace without 
a garden, here there is a fine garden without a palace, as the 
edifice has small pretensions to royal magnificence. The gar- 
dens were laid out by Philip II., and are such as Yelazquez 
painted ; but the French chateau was completed by Charles 
IY., the most driveling of Spanish Bourbons : again, it was 
frequently plundered by the French under Soult, Yictor, and 
others. They converted the gardens into a wilderness, and the 
palace into a home for owls, yet the Duke, even when far away 
at Yillatoro, wrote immediately to Hill, who was about to 
occupy Aranjuez , " Take care that the officers and troops 
respect the king's houses and gardens." So % Marlborough, 
when advancing a conqueror into France, after Malplaquet, 
" ordered Fenelon's house to be spared." 

Aranjuez, during the Jornada, or royal season, used to con- 
tain 20,000 persons in a crowded and expensive discomfort ; 
but when the court was absent, it dwindled down to 5000. In 

10 



218 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

olden times the accommodations were iniquitous, for even the 
deipnosophist diplomats lived in troglodyte houses burrowed in 
the hill-sides, after the local rabbit-like style of these wretched 
localities. At a subterraneous dinner, however, given by the 
Nuncio, a cart broke through and announced itself as an entree 
for the nonce, whereupon the Italian Grimaldi, minister to 
Charles III., who had before been at the Hague, planned a 
sort of Dutch town, with avenues in the street, and thus 
changed the village, as his celebrated namesake, the clown, 
would have done in a pantomime. Aranjuez has a noble Plaza, 
de Toros, a tolerable theatre and a telegraph, which was set 
up to amuse Ferdinand VII., whose passion was to hear some- 
thing new. It is said that the first message which he sent to 
the grave council of Castile at Madrid, was " A nun has been 
brought to bed with twins ;" the immediate answer was, "Had 
it been a monk, that would have been news. On the hill to 
the left going to Ocana is a pond, here called, as usual, the sea, 
el mar de Ontigola. 

The beloved Ferdinand did not by any means renounce the 
good old recreations of his royal ancestors, for he never missed 
Herradura, to which he took his wives and maids of honor, 
just as Philip IV., did his. The cream of the funcion was see- 
ing an operation performed on young bulls, which fitted them 
for the plough. The term Herradura is derived from the brand- 
ing cattle with a hot iron, Ferradura a ferro, which is of Ori- 
ental origin, and was introduced by the Saracens into France, 
and is still called la Ferrade at Camargue near Aries. It also 
prevailed in Spain among the Goths (San Isidoro, f Or.' xx. 16). 
The royal breeding establishments near Aranjuez, like those 
near Cordova, were destroyed by the invaders, but restored by 
Ferdinand VII. : visit the royal stables ; there are some 



MELODIOUS NOISES. 219 



fine Padres y Garanones for breeding from mares and asses : 
the females are allowed to wander at liberty over a district on 
purpose of great extent. 

The palace is placed near the Tagus, at the Madrid end of 
the village, or rather the " metropolis, of Flora/ 7 as the natives 
say. A bald Plaza de San Antonio, a sort of French Place du 
Carrousel, with a corredor and iron railing, affords space for 
dust and glare. The interior of the palace contains some bad 
pictures, and fresco ceilings by Conrado Bayeu and others, 
which are no better. There is some good marqueterie carving, 
and the look-out on the gardens over the parterre, the jardines 
del Principe, y de la isla, and cascade, is charming. Here all 
the trees in Castile seem collected as a salon for a Cortes of all 
the nightingales of Spain, and how sweet, after the songless, 
arid desert, is " the melodious noise of birds among the spread- 
ing branches, and the pleasing fall of water running violently." 
The gardener will take the visitor round the lions of the Isla, 
the last fountain of which was painted by Velazquez : the 
others are fine, and play on great holidays and royal birthdays. 
The best objects to observe are la Puerta del Sol, the Fountain 
of the Swan, la Cascada, Neptune, and the Tritons ; in a word, 
here Nereids, Naiads, and Dryads might sport, while Flora and 
Pomona looked on. The elms brought from England by Philip 
II. grow magnificently under this combined heat and moisture. 
They were the first introduced into Spain, where, from their 
rareness, they are as much admired as palm-trees are by us. 

The Casa del Labrador, or laborer's cottage, is another play- 
thing of that silly Charles IV. The Florera or Jardin Ingles, 
the English garden, as all foreigners call any irregular place 
without order and with weeds, was laid out by Richard Wall, 
an Irishman. 



220 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

It was at Aranjuez, March 19, 1808, that Charles TV., in 
order to save his wife's minion, Godoy, abdicated the crown in 
favor of Ferdinand VII. Toreno prints all the disgraceful 
letters written by him and his wife, the proud monarchs of 
Castile ! to Murat, their " very dear brother !" to Murat, who 
a few years before had been a pot-house waiter, and who, in 
six weeks afterwards, deluged their capital with Spanish blood. 
Godoy, a vile tool of Buonaparte, was thus saved, in order to 
consummate his guilt and folly, by signing with Duroc, at 
Bayonne, the transfer of Spain to France, stipulating only, 
mean to the last, for filthy lucre and pensions. 

A good breakfast at the inn of "Los Quatro Naciones," 
kept by an Englishman, with a lively bustling Frenchwoman 
for a wife, who superintended the cuisine, gave us courage to 
pursue our journey towards Toledo. 

Nothing could exceed the dull and dreary aspect of the road 
thither, or the monotony of a ride, rendered still more torment- 
ing by the contrast of the Tagus meandering through the 
distant campagna, and marking its course by the rich belts of 
vegetation and foliage growing along its banks. 

Once it happened, in order to vary the progress of our 
journey, that the wheels of our carriage were buried in the 
sand, and were rescued with great difficulty from their sunken 
position ; and again, in spite of the remonstrance and against 
the advice of the passengers, we were driven by the majorat 
into a very deep mud-puddle. He, in more haste and less speed, 
had been tempted into this marsh by an attempt to save himself 
the trouble of crossing over a bridge, which was in his regular 
route ; being once fixed in the rut, he persisted in not altering 
his mind, and exulted in pursuing the bent of his perverseness, 
as if delighted with the evil resulting from his disobedience 



STUCK IN THE MUD. 221 



of our commands. Once in, however, there was naught but 
to sit still, for we were some four feet deep in the middle of 
a quagmire, with the water over our wheels, and oosing through 
the door of the rotunde, so as to prevent any escape to the 
land, except at the risk of a ducking. There we remained, 
occasionally thrusting our heads out of the windows of the 
coach, earnestly watching the movements of the muleteers, who 
were vainly endeavoring to force the vehicle out ; while the 
poor jaded mules stood up to their ears in water, imploringly 
shrieking for pity, under the lashes of the majored and the 
kicks and goads of the calesero. There never was such a hal- 
looing and cursing as the postillion indulged in from the back 
of the leader, nor so much labor ever before expended in Spain 
as in this useless endeavor to urge the animals through the 
deep mud, which clogged the wheels in the bog. In vain we 
tried to coax a passing peasant for the loan of his oxen, that 
we might sooner get out. He only shrugged his shoulders in 
reply, and treating the whole affair as a joke, quitted us with 
truly Spanish indifference, leaving us to make the best way out 
of the swamp that we could ; while a well-known significant 
gesture, and look over the nose, betokened that he was very 
glad we were so nicely stirring in the matter. Yerily, indeed, 
says the proverb, "lazy people always take the most trouble." 

Doubtless we should have remained there to this day, had it 
not appeared to some of us, that it would materially lighten the 
load if we relieved the omnibus of our weight; a suggestion 
which had not previously occurred to us, owing to the 
natural obstinacy of my fellow-passengers, being somewhat 
strengthened by their dealings with the Spaniards; which in- 
duced them to rejoice at the perplexity of oar conductor, and 
to the fact, that " there is," as Rochefoucauld says, " something 



222 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

so very amusing in the misfortune of others," as even to suspend 
the consideration of a slight personal annoyance, while we laugh 
at the mishaps of our fellow beings. 

Having concluded that the quickest way of lightening the 
stage was to climb out by the window to the top, and thence 
to jump from the roof to the ground, by taking a forced leap 
of several feet, we accordingly emptied the vehicle by this 
process, and having been safely landed near the pier-head of 
the bridge, we were soon repaid by perceiving that the vehicle 
was moving under the united efforts of the driver and the post- 
boy, in conjunction with the cries, oaths, adjurations, gibes, 
goads and lashes of the postillion, who was alternately sup- 
ported in his voice by the brayings of the donkeys, the yells 
of our party, and the screams of the entire chorus of all the 
animals together. This difficulty having been overcome, the 
passengers re-entered the interior, and in a few moments we 
were off for the post of our destination. 

TOLEDO. 

The aspect of Toledo — the once imperial Toledo — now 
slighted for the upstart of Madrid, but the still chosen city of 
the antiquary, was truly grand. Seated high on the crowns 
of its seven hills, the lofty towers of the Alcazar, hospitals, and 
glorious Cathedral loomed aloft above the circuit of its Moorish 
wall. This ancient seat of royalty, in olden times, appeared 
still more interesting after we had entered within its gates. Its 
charming position on the Tagus, is almost unequaled in Europe. 
Its interior offers many curious relics of the Moors, and the 
remnants of the most exquisite architectural ornaments. The 
walls encompassing the modern city, still preserve the outlines 



SPANISH GNATS. 223 



and casements of the Moorish towers. Both synagogues in the 
Jews' quarter, present traces of some of those rich arabesques 
in the wainscotings and ceilings, that have ever since claimed 
the admiration of the artist, while they have puzzled and defied 
imitations of modern art. How I enjoyed the walks that led 
around the entire circuit of this quaint old town. A magical 
transfer of thought would often quickly recall the memory of 
the lost age of Spanish glories — the times of Ferdinand and 
Isabel, of Philip and Alphonso, the sage. Here were pictured 
forth the epochs of the ancient worthies of Spain, whose hearts 
were as trusty and sure, as the "good blades of Toledo, " of 
which Falstaff boasted. 

We lodged at the Fonda de la Caridad, an inn nearly 
opposite the square of the Zocodover, now yeiept, the Plaza de 
la Constitution; but I prefer the former title of the " Zoco- 
dover" — the truly, original, Moorish term, so well suited to To- 
ledo — a distinctive title becoming to the place, and only proper 
here, where old high towers, huge rambling balconies, tumbling 
with mattings, and obtrusively projecting window blinds, clearly 
tell of their mixed Spanish and Moorish descent. In a cham- 
ber on the wall, looking down into the court-yard of the inn, 
and with a view commanding, by day-light, the range of its 
peculiar hills, and the waters of the turbid Tagus, I fell asleep 
after the fatigues of the day — but was soon roused, and became 
staringly alive to this contrast with the former splendors of 
Toledo, for I was horribly tormented during the whole night by 
a family of Spanish gnats. 

If "music be the food of love, play on," was the burden of 
my reflections, as I was suddenly awakened the next morning by 
the strains of a duet, sung under my window by a couple of my 
hostess' washerwomen, who were thus early engaged at their tubs 



224 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

in the courtyard. Having always believed that there was much 
harmony in Spanish music, although its versification claimed 
little pretensions to rythm, I was surprised to discover that my 
poetical ideas of their ballads had been over estimated. After 
hearing these two girls through a dozen of their chants, I was 
convinced that the beauty of their voices was only excelled 
by homeliness of their persons, and that in the particular 
little war blinds of the two maidens below, who were then 



smgmg- 



" Jo no, quiero, no quiero, casar me, 
Porque es mejor, es mejor, ser soltero." 

" Oh, no ! no ! I wish not to marry. 
'T were better, much better, to tarry." 

there was neither rhyme nor reason, and less truth in my 
former imaginations about the romance of Spanish songs, than 
there was reality in the visions of perfection and loveliness 
which Don Quixote entertained for his charming Dulcinea del 
Toboso, or in their own chances for matrimony on account of 
their musical talent. 

Requiring some consolation after so great a disappointment, 
I sought relief in the past, and having proposed a walk entirely 
around the city of Toledo, was soon lost to all remembrances of 
the troubles of the last night, or the discordant sounds of the 
morning. Starting from the truly " Oriental-like " Gate of the 
Sun," I crossed the Alemeda on -my way to the Hospital of St. 
John, and resting there on the terrace that overlooked the 
Tagus, was soon wrapped in meditations and musings suggested 
by a sight of the decayed splendor and magnificent proportions 
of the palatial castle of the Knights of St. John. Like reflec- 
tions caused me to think of the bygone supremacy of the city 



TAGUS SEVEN HILLS. 225 

which was at my feet in ruins, and casting my thoughts to the 
wind, I sat down and resumed the perusal of its history. 

READING. 

Imperial Toledo, the navel of the Peninsula, " the crown of 
Spain, the light of the whole world, free from the time of the 
mighty Goths," as its son Padilla addressed it, is a city of the 
past. When seen from afar, nothing can be more imposing, 
but there is rottenness in the core. This Durham of a once 
golden hierarchy is in perfect contrast with the modern capital, 
for here everything is solid, venerable and antique. It has not 
been run up by Academicians to please the hurry of a king's 
caprice, but is built like a rock, and on a rock. Like Rome, it 
stands on seven hills, and is about 2400 feet above the level of 
the sea. The Tagus, boiling through the rent, or Tajo, of the 
granite mountain, girdles it around, just leaving one approach 
by the land side, which is defended by Moorish towers and 
walls. Inside, the streets, or rather lanes, are irregular, steep, 
and tortuous; but such intentional intricacy rendered them easy 
to defend when attacked, and kept them cool in summer. The 
houses are massive and Moorish-like ; each family lives in its 
own secluded castle, and not in flats or apartments as at 
Madrid. Here again we find the Oriental patio, over which 
awnings are drawn in summer, as at Seville. Their areas are 
kept very clean, as the rain-water is collected from them for 
domestic uses. Toledo, although deficient in water, is a clean 
town. It is bitter cold in winter and hot in summer. The hills 
reflect back the sun's rays, but the river-meadows are pleasant ; 
and the Tagus is indeed a river, and not a dry ditch like the 
Manzanares. The Toledans, like their houses, are solid and 

10* 



226 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

trustworthy old Castilians, and muy ho?nbres de Men. Here the 
glorious Castellano is spoken in all its purity of grammar and 
pronunciation, which is slow and guttural. 

In the heart of the city towers the cathedral, around which 
cluster multitudinous churches and convents, many now silent 
as tombs. Even Salamanca, a city of learning was scarcely 
more hardly treated by the invaders than Toledo, the see of 
the primate. 

The foundation of Toledo is of course ascribed to Hercules, 
i.e., the Phoenicians; others, however, prefer Tubal, who built 
it 143 years to a day after the deluge; nor have its townsfolk 
yet forgiven the Abbe de Yayrac for saying that they boasted 
that "Adam was the first king of Toledo, and the newly 
created sun rose over this spot, because the centre and throne 
of the world." Be that as it may, Toledo, when taken by 
Marius Fulvius, U. C. 561, 193 B. C, was " urbs parva sed 
loconiunita" (Livy, xxxv. 22). The name has been derived 
from Tcledoth, the Hebrew" city of generations," as having been 
their place of refuge when Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchad- 
nezzar. No doubt many Jews did fly to "Tarshish," to the 
"uttermost parts of the earth," in order to escape the calami- 
ties in Palestine; and certainly when Toledo was first taken by 
the Moors, it was filled with Hebrews, or, as they called them, 
" Amalekites," who, resenting the Gothic persecution, facili- 
tated the progress of the Berbers, who themselves were half 
Jews and half Pagans. The extraordinary spoil proves how 
rich the city then was. 

Conde interprets Toledo, quasi Tolaitola, "altura perfectum," 
or atalaya grande, from the Arabic attalah, a place of look-out, 
and to this day the Alcazar towers nobly over the city, its 
beacon and sentinel. Leovigildo, under w T hom the Gothic 



OLD AS THE HILLS. 221 



monarchy was consolidated, removed his court from Seville, and 
made Toledo the capital of Spain. His successor, Recaredo, 
brought the kingdom entirely into the Christian fold, and hence 
here were held so many of those important councils which give 
such insight into the spirit and condition of that age, for they 
in reality, were convocations and parliaments, as the sacerdotal 
aristocracy united social and civil supremacy. The Goths, 
who have been unjustly stigmatized as destructive barbarians, 
repaired and improved the city, bridges and Roman walls, 
portions of which exist, for Toledo was one of the few towns 
exempted from the decree of Witiza, by which so many others 
were simultaneously dismantled, as if to render conquest easier 
to the invader. But history in Spain is always reproducing 
itself. 

Wamba was the benefactor of Toledo, as is recorded in the 
inscription over the great gate, " Erexit fautore Deo rex 
inclytus urbem, Wamba." This is indeed " a long time ago," 
for Wamba is the Japetus of Spain, and the phrase en el tiempo 
del Key Wamba, proverbially denotes a date beyond legal 
memory, as "old as the hills/' an te?nps ou la Heine Berthefilait. 
Wamba w T as half poisoned, in 687, by Ervigius, and, when 
supposed to be dead, was clad, as usual, in a monk's dress for 
burial ; and, therefore, when he recovered was compelled to 
continue the cowl. The quarrels between the usurper and 
rightful heirs weakened the Gothic government, and enabled 
the Moors, in 714, to subdue the divided kingdom, just as, 
afterwards, in 1492, the dissensions of the Moslems paved the 
way to their final defeat by Ferdinand and Isabella. The Jews 
of Toledo, when their Moorish friends seized their money, 
turned to the avenging Christian, and facilitated the conquest 
of the city, in 1085, by Alonso VI., who thereupon took the 



228 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

title of Emperor of Toledo, giving " himself seated on an 
imperial throne " for the bearing on its shield, and naming the 
Cid as its first Alcaide. Toledo, honored by the sovereign, and 
made the primacy of a rich clergy, was always loyal ; thus, 
when Burgos disputed its new precedence in Cortes, Alonso 
XI. exclaimed, " Let Burgos speak first : I will speak for 
Toledo, which will do what I wish." 

Casting a retrospect over the memory of this illustrious city, 
we can now recall the image of its former splendor, and restore 
the lines of its ancient walls, circumventing this capital, with 
its uplifted towers and swelling buttresses, that hung like 
turbans on the frontage of its Moorish fortresses and defences. 
While far above the fortifications and mural outlines arose 
noble edifices, and brilliant shrines projected against the sky, 
and running in easy succession along the summits of the seven 
hills. Before these walls we view the plain, stretching its 
velvet length of green along the course of the Tagus, until the 
distant mountains skirted its bounds in that direction, where 
the traces of a Roman circus and a ruin basilic terminated, and 
relieved the eye-sight. Turning to the right, we catch a view 
of the crumbling palace of Wamba, with its fragmentary 
points still rising over the remains of an Arab bath, in whose 
waters beauties once laved their limbs, and warriors beheld the 
gambols of the fair water-nymphs. Here Roderick beheld 
from his terrace above the charms of this Gothic Bathsheba. 
Now, at the water's edge we watched the figures of ignoble 
soldiers, who were guarding the gangs of convicts, while they 
washed hemp — for their own hanging, it might be — in the 
running waters of the Tagus. 

First walk round this most picturesque old city, beginning at 
the north-eastern land approach; descend to the Puerta del Sol, 



RAMBLING JUDARIA. 229 



a rich Moorish gate of granite horseshoe arches, with upper 
intersecting ones of red brick, and follow the old road which 
winds down by the church of Santiago; observe its courtyard, 
portico, and absis; thence pass on to the Puerta de Visagra, 
now blocked up, and therefore called la Puerta lodada. The 
name Visagra, said by some to be Via sacra, the road by 
which Alonso entered in triumph, is simply Bib Sakra, 
Arabice, " gate of the country;" and the rich cereal and 
pastoral district between Illescas and Aranjuez is still called 
La Sayra, Arabice, " the open country, the support." Others 
read in it the Hebrew Sahar, " bright," as being the east gate, 
on which the rising sun would shine, and through which " those 
who went out early," Saharaim, would pass. 

The Alemeda outside this gate was planted in 1826, by the 
Corregidor Navarro, who laid out the gardens and Plazuda 
de Marchan, but the statues of Toledan kings are bad and 
heavy. 

A fine outline of convents and palaces, all ruined by the 
invader, crests the hill running by the lunatic hospital, el 
Nuncio, to the pinnacled gate of Cambron. 

Entering the town by the Gate of Saint Martin, you are 
struck w T ith the elegance of the exquisite cloisters, with pointed 
Gothic arches, of San Juan de los Reyes. They are simple 
in their style, and purely Gothic. They were models of archi- 
tecture in their day. Beyond, and in the rear of the rambling 
quarter of the Judaria, are the remains of two richly embel- 
lished synagogues, preserving slight evidences of their former 
magnificence. The honey-comb cornices and rich open-work 
mouldings in Tarkish on the ceilings, retain the freshness of the 
beautiful colors in which they had first been painted. The reds 
and blues, and greens are still vivid and pure. How exquisite 



230 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

are the traceries and ornaments of the decorated columns, 
running in spiral transverses of serpentine fantastics and ara- 
besque. 

One of the synagogues although less ancient, is finer and 
better preserved ; it is called el Transito, from a picture of the 
death of the Virgin, which has disappeared during recent 
reforms. It was built by Levi, treasurer to Don Pedro the 
Cruel, who, however, in 1360, being in want of cash, and 
knowing the value of a Jew's eye, tortured and killed poor 
Levi, and then seized his money-bags. He had previously pat- 
ronized the Jews, who soon became so rich and numerous that 
the other synagogue was too small, and this splendid "place of 
congregation," owayoyrj, the precise jama or mosque of the 
Moor, was built in a mixture of the Gothic, Moorish, and 
Hebrew style, which must indeed have once been gorgeous, but 
the Spaniards have disfigured the east end with a trumpery 
gilt retablo that conceals the lace-like embroidery; the upper 
parts, being out of reach, have escaped better, so observe the 
honey-comb cornice, the rows of engrailed Moorish arches, and 
the superb artesonado roof. A broad band with foliage con- 
tains the arms of Leon and Castile, and is edged with a 
Hebrew inscription. Isabella, in 1494, gave the building to 
the order of Calatrava; then the holy of holies was converted 
into an archive, and the galleries of the Jewesses into a 
dwelling of the animal who is called el custodio or conserje. 

There is a history of the Sepharaim or Spanish Jews, by 
James Finn, 1841, which by no means exhausts the subject. 
They were of a very high caste ; and although persecuted by 
Goth, Moor, and Spaniard, by followers of creeds both alike 
daughters of the Old Testament, they clung closely to their 
faith. Strange religionists ! who turned, when the only depos- 



SCYTHE OF REVENGE. 231 



itories of the real word of God, to every idolatry, worshipping 
a golden calf (and probably because it was golden,) even under 
the thunders of Mount Sinai, and yet, when the true Messiah 
came to supersede the old law, then they clung doggedly to 
what they before abandoned. Spain (Tarshish) was always 
the favored locality of the Jew when forced away from Pales- 
tine. Being men of peace and money, they were always per- 
secuted by the men of war, who seldom can live on their pay. 
Such was the Judaicus Fiscus of Domitian (Suet. 12,) such the 
policy of Tiberius, who banished all Jews from Italy who would 
not abjure their creed (Tac. 'An.' ii. 85,) for the purification 
of religion was always made the pretext of appropriating ava- 
rice. The Christian Goths, equally fond of money as the Ro- 
mans, found an additional accusation in the guilt of the cruci- 
fixion. In 694, by the seventeenth council of Toledo, the Jews 
were ordered to be cut off with the " scythe of revenge," for 
corresponding with the "Filistins" of Barbary. It was then, 
when driven by persecutions, that they called in the avenging 
Moors, and opened the gates of Toledo, it is said, on Palm 
Sunday, when the Christian garrison was worshipping at the 
tomb of Santa Leocadia. For this service they at first were 
favored by the Moslem, and, being left in peace, soon became 
again so rich, that their heresies began to stink in Mohamme- 
dan nostrils, and they were either strangled or robbed. In this 
dilemma they turned to the avenging Christians, and let in 
Alonso VI., who also for a time encouraged and protected 
them. As they sided with Don Pedro (because they had lent 
him money) in the civil wars of 1369, they were treated as 
traitors by the successful Henrique II., who confiscated their 
cash. Then ensued the crusades of San Vicente de Ferrer, 
who imitated the great modern master of Jewish persecution, 



232 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

the perfidious Philippe le Bel of France, son of Saint Louis, 
and murderer of two popes. The Spanish Jews, having been 
long hunted like beasts and impoverished, were finally expelled 
from Spain by Isabella, in 1492, who therefore is called Jesebel 
in their chronicles. Yast numbers settled on the Mohamme- 
dan shores of the Mediterranean, where their descendants still 
speak Spanish. Many, however, remained behind, professing 
to be Christians, but in secret following their own religion and 
mammon. And some still exist — a curious fact discovered by 
Mr. Borrow, and quite unknown to Spaniards. These Jews 
are quiet and in easy circumstances, trafficking in wool and 
longanizas, which they sell, but do not eat, as pork enters largely 
into this excellent sausage. Although the Spaniards are una- 
ware of their existence, the name Jew, Judio, is still the male- 
dictio pessima the JVimreseth, the insult never to be forgiven, 
anathema maranatha. Spaniards, even in this century,- were 
taught to think all foreigners to be heretics and Jews. The 
cry of Juiada is still a prelude to certain murder. " I hate 
oppression in every shape," said a Yalencian Liberal to Lord 
Carnarvon ; " I am a friend to the human race : if indeed there 
be a Jew among us, burn him, I say, burn him, alive." 

Go then with the raised spirit of some noble Spanish artist, 
and visit the gorgeous wonders of its cathedral, or join the 
figure of a mysterious priest to pry into and pore over the 
treasures of its invaluable library. 

How rich are the illustrations of the illuminated missals of 
the monks, those great conservators of literature and art during 
the middle ages. They were the earnest lovers of the beautiful, 
artists of fervent devotion to their labors of love and piety — the 
solemn, silent silk worms enriching their sepulchres and spin- 
ning their webs of imperishable colors into their shrouds of tran- 



CASTLE OF CERVANTES. 233 

scendent grace. The breviary of Charles V. must have con- 
sumed a lifetime in the completion of the manuscript and its 
illustration. Transported again to the banks of the Tagus, we 
walked over the ground near the splendid bridge of Saint Mar- 
tin, and from this side caught a picturesque view down the river, 
with its combination of fine subjects for the painter, and land- 
scapes embracing a series of old castles, pretty ruins, waterfalls, 
and old Moorish mills. One or two of these pictures will 
remind you of the sombre grandeur and glorious effects of Sal- 
vator Rosa, as wild in contrasts of light and shadow as they 
are in the mystery of his works, and uniting in one canvas all 
the graces of harmony with the confusion of a chaos, in the 
composition. While wandering over the hills, the artist might 
stop at the mill that surmounts the bluff where the Tagus now 
bends to the frown of the opposite mountain, and here take a 
siesta at the hour of noon, or may occupy his leisure by a 
sketch of the scene where the old dueiia is chatting with the 
miller's daughter, w r ho is washing out her red bandanna as she 
sits on a rock beside the stream, and then coquettishly winks at 
the mill-boy trudging along with his mule. Have you never 
seen Salvator's Women at the Stream, my reader ? Then go 
to Toledo, and dream of the miller's daughter, and by the mill- 
race, on the opposite side from the town, you will soon discover 
that there is some truth in this fiction. There you may get, 
also, a superb look at the city and its position, set on a hill, 
and afterwards you may learn, as you are walking beyond to the 
top of the mountain, that the old castle of Cervantes on the 
summit, was not named from the author of Don Quixote, the 
knight of La Mancha ; then " chewing the quid of sweet and 
bitter reflection," re-enter the city by the bridge of the Alcan- 
tara, and admire its fine proportions and noble span, and the 



234 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

group of the numerous water-mills that are running with the 
force of the Tagus. 

Ascend the hill to the left, and rest for a moment to look 
down on the roofless Ingenio, the water-work engine, whose 
ruin seems made for artists. Toledo, built on a lofty rock, was 
badly supplied with water, whereupon the Romans spanned 
the defile with a gigantic viaduct and aqueduct, which ran from 
the Puerto de Yevenes, distant seven leagues. When the Moors 
conquered Toledo, there was also an enormous naiirah, noria, 
or water-wheel, ninety cubits high, which forced up water by 
pipes, a work of the Jews. The Toledan Moors were first-rate 
hydraulists (see ' Moh. D./ ii. 262): their king, Al-mamun 
Ibn Dhi-a-niin, or Yahya, had a lake in his palace, and in the 
middle a kiosk, from whence water descended on each side, thus 
enclosing him in the coolest of summer houses, exactly as is the 
Kasr Dubarra, now existing at Cairo. Here also were made, 
by Az-Zarcel, the clepsydra, or water-clocks, for astronomical 
calculations, to study which Daniel Merlac came all the way 
from Oxford in 1185. Charles V., who delighted in mechan- 
ics, in 1565 caused some Greeks to descend at Toledo in a 
diving-bell, and the same year he brought from Cremona a 
watchmaker named Juanelo Turriano, to repair the original 
noria, which in 1568 forced up 600,000 buckets of water daily. 
Disputes, however, arose between the crown and the corpora- 
tion as " conservators of the river," between whom the Turriano 
family were ruined. Soon after the Tagus damaged the engine, 
which the natives could not repair, and thereupon applied to an 
English company, who declined, since when the ruin has been 
complete, and Toledo, the "light of the world," obtains its 
water by the primitive machinery of donkeys, driven up and down 
by water-carriers, still called by their Arabic name azacams. 



SUK MARKET-PLACE. 235 



High above the latter, the noble form of the Alcazar, once 
the palatial seat of Moorish royalty and Christian king, rises in 
its majesty, and toppling over the banks of a precipice, hangs 
tremulously projecting one of- its buttresses over the waters of 
the river. The oldest portions overlook the Tagus, as the 
castle of Presburg does the Danube. It is now in ruins, and 
although little remains to recall the splendors of its past his- 
tory, or of its days of revelry and joust within its walls, the 
view from the tower embraces the entire circuit of the Toledan 
hills, including in its sweep the remote demesnes of Aranjeuz. 

[Now proceed to the Zocodove?-, a name which to readers of 
Lazarillo de Tonnes and Cervantes recalls the haunt of rogues 
and of those proud and poor Don Whiskerandos who swaggered 
and starved with their capas y espadas. Suk in Arabic, Zoco 
in Spanish, and Soke in English, signify a " market-place/' and 
vicinity to cathedrals, for commerce and religion went hand in 
hand : the shrine attracted multitudes and " money-changers," 
while its sanctity protected commerce. This plaza is most 
Moorish, with its irregular windows, balconies, blacksmiths, and 
picturesque peasantry, and in summer evenings is a fashionable 
promenade. 

Now a long and almost the only widish street in Toledo 
leads to the Gothic cathedral, whose exterior is not very beau- 
tiful nor symmetrical, while the north entrance is blocked up : 
the best points of view are to the north-west, either from the 
Plaza dc San Yuste or that del Ayuntamiento, to which the 
grand facade looks. Only one tower is finished, which was 
begun by Tenorio, and completed in 1535 by Tavera. It rises 
325 feet high from a square base to a Gothic middle story, end- 
ing with a thin spire encircled as with crowns of thorns. The 
cupola of the other tower is after designs of El Greco; the 



236 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

steps of the Puerto del Perdon are ascended and descended by 
pregnant women, in order to ensure an easy parturition. 

The church chronicles state that this temple was built to the 
Virgin while she was alive, and that she often came down from 
heaven to it, accompanied by St. Peter, St. Paul, and Santiago. 
Converted by the Moors into their grand mosque, Alonzo VI. 
guaranteed it to them ; but ere the ink was dry, Bernardo, the 
first archbishop, backed by the queen, Constanza, a native of 
France like himself, the moment the king was absent, seized the 
mosque and dispossessed the Moors ; then the Alfa que, fore- 
seeing that resistance was useless, interceded with Alonzo ; the 
building was pulled down in 1226 by St. Ferdinand, who him- 
self laid the first stone of the present cathedral : designed by 
Pedro Perez, it was completed in 1492, plundered in 1521 by 
PadihVs mob, and again in 1808 by La Houssaye. Previously 
it was a mine of wealth and art ; thus Cean Bermudez enume- 
rates 149 artists, who, during six centuries, were employed by 
the richest prelates of Spain to make a temple worthy of the 
primacy, a dignity which was long held by the master mind of 
the day. The older archbishops of Toledo were great alike in 
peace and war ; the Rodrigos headed victorious armies, the 
Tenorios built bridges, the Fonsecas founded colleges, the Men- 
dozas and Ximenez were third kings and regents, they founded 
universities, while the Taveras and Lorenzanas raised houses 
of charity and hospitals. 

Before entering, examine the exterior and gates. La 
Puerto, del los Leones, at the extremity of the south transept, is 
so called from the lions with shields on pillars. 

Now a long street leads to the Cathedral, a rich depository 
of ecclesiastical wealth and power, displaying an excess of 
ornament in the tracery of its walls and doors. The superb 



ORIENTAL PICTURE. 237 



coro and high altar, brilliant chapels and beautifully colored 
and stained glass in the window panes, with its monuments and 
carved works, tombs and relics of the kings, together with the 
legacies of that princely minister Mendoza, in the superbly 
lighted and elegantly supported cloisters, lend a charm of won- 
derment and delight, which are by no means sustained by the 
irregular proportions of its exterior or the diminutive size of 
its tower 

As we dwelt in imagination over the many striking features 
there arranged before the mind in pleasurable fancy, we could 
not but admire the Oriental aspect of a vision so replete with 
scenes of Arabian splendor and magnificent form. Windows 
with curtains of parti-colored folds, and mattings spread before 
doors of the Moorish houses, with horse-shoe arches shielding 
their inmates from the fierce heats of Spain, while the interior 
courtyards aided to shelter the dwellers in this " land of the sun," 
and verdant gardens smiling wath rich clusters of sweetly per- 
fumed flowers, amid fountains of graceful form and brilliant jets 
of water, created lively enthusiasm in every turn of our pleasant 
day-dreams, while we mused in mirthful revery over this picture 
of beauty and amenity, with thoughts that were shaded with 
the allegories of the East, and retrospects that ascribed to the 
lovely scenery about Toledo a fascination of enchantment some- 
what akin to the clime of the Bulhul, the enjoyment of the 
Persian, or the cherished birthright of the favored children of 
Damascus, the home and the first love of the Moors. This 
image was still further prolonged by the low plaints of the 
peasants at work at their daily tasks, whose monotonous voices, 
and airs in the minor key reminded us of the songs of the Nile, 
while the dresses of the men, wrapped in the folds of their 
huge Spanish cloaks, recalled the bernoos of the Bedouins, no 



238 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

less than the sleepers in the streets, stretched out in happy 
indolence like the children of the desert, with a hot sun staring 
them in the face. Thus we were constantly reminded of the 
former presence of the Moors in Spain, and imagination lent 
its easy aid to bring back the images of these swarthy progen- 
itors, whose footprints will remain indelibly stamped upon the 
soil of the Peninsula. 

TOLEDO BLADES. 

The celebrated fabrica de armas, or manufactory of Toledan 
swords, is placed on the banks of the Tagus, about two miles 
south-west of the city. The huge building was raised for 
Charles III. by Sabatini, and is well provided with forges, etc. 
The blades here are of a fine temper and polish, and so elastic 
that they are sometimes packed up in boxes, curled up like the 
mainspring of a watch, or " compassed," as Falstaff says, "like 
a good Bilboa, in the circumference of a peck, hilt to point, 
heel to head." Arms were the joy and life of the aboriginal 
Spaniards, nay, dearer than life, for when they were taken 
from them the disarmed committed suicide (Livy, xxxiv. 17; 
Sil. Ital. iii. 330 ; Justin, xliv. 2, 5). 

Their swords were adopted by the Romans, who retained 
the epithet Spanish for their Velites, and Polybius (iii. 114) dis- 
tinguishes between them and those of Gaul, while Diod. Siculus 
(v. 356) enlarges on their merits and mode of manufacture. 
Their double edge was no less fatal than the genuine Iberian 
dirk, the prototype of the modern cuchilio, which Cicero calls 
pugiwncwlws Hispaniensisj but the vernacular name was daga, 
(daggarj, which the Greeks rendered ifya^v, unde broquel. 
Thus the hidalgo was ordered by Philip II. in 1564, only to 



DOUBLE-HANDED EDGED. 239 

appear with his espada (spatha) and his broqucl; the use of the 
latter was to cut meat and despatch a prostrate foe, and hence 
called misericordia ; it was worn by the Iberians in their girdles, 
as the cuchillo is now in the fajas (Livy, vii. 10). On the 
Iberian Pugio, see Mart. xiv. 33 ; Strabo, hi. 231 ; and Diod. 
Siculus, y. 356. 

The identical mines worked by the ancients still produce the 
finest ores, for the soil of Spain is iron-pregnant. Those near 
Calatayud on the Jalon, the "steel-tempering" Bilbilis, rival 
the metals of the Basque provinces and the iron mountains 
(Pliny, 'N. H.' xxxiv. 14) of Somorrostro and Mondragon; 
the steel was buried in the earth in order that the baser por- 
tions might rust away; while the modern hierro helado, frozen 
iron, corresponds with old effect of the Jalon, qui ferrum gelat 
(Martial, i. 50, 12). The steel was tempered in winter, and 
the blade, when red hot, was whirled round in the cold air, and 
when reduced to a cherry heat (cerezado of present practice) 
was put into oil or grease, and then into boiling water (see 
Mondragon, R. 121). 

The Military Romans kept up the Iberian processes and 
manufactories, which were continued by the Goths. See San 
Isidoro (Or. xvi. 20). The Moors introduced their Damascene 
system of additional ornament and tempering, and so early as 
852 this identical fabrica at Toledo was in work under Abd-r- 
rahman Ben Alhakem (Conde, i. 285). The Moors introduced 
a large double-handed double-edged sword (Conde, i. 456), 
which became the model of mediaeval montante. The best marks 
are of El Morillo, el Moro dc Zaragoza (on these brands see 
Lett. 13 of 'Dillon's Travels in Spain'). The next best were 
made by Italians, by Andre Ferrara, who settled at Zaragoza, 
and by whom were furnished those splendid blades which Fer- 



240 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

dinand sent to Henry VIII. on his marriage with his daughter 
Catherine. These " trenchant swords were the Toledos trusty," 
of which, says Mercutio, " a soldier dreams." These were the 
weapons which Othello, the Moor, "kept in his chamber" like 
a treasure : "a sword of Spain, the ice-broods temper ; a better 
never did itself sustain upon a soldier's thigh." Other good 
marks are la loba and el perillo, the little dog, made at Toledo, 
by a Moor named Julian del Rei. 

The finest collection of historical swords in the world is in 
the Armaria at Madrid. The sword, the type and arm of 
chivalry, has always been honored in Spain. The Moors petted 
and named them like children : Mahomet called his the " sword 
of God," Kaled ben Walid ; the Tisona, " the sparkling brand," 
and Colada of the Cid were his spolia opima from Moorish 
kings. These were his queridas prendas, carasaprendas, which 
he loved better than his wife and daughters, and which figure 
so much in his Romancero (Duran, v. 154). Many have mottos 
indicative of the fine old Castilian spirit, e. g. No me saqua 
sin razon, no me envaines sin honor ; Do not draw me without 
cause, do not sheath me without honor. The introduction of 
fire-arms dealt the first blow to Toledan swords, which then 
became the arm of cavalry, in which the Spaniards do not excel. 
The last blow was the fashion of the smaller French sword, 
which dispossessed the Spanish rapier. Consult the essay on 
ancient Spanish arms, the Lancea, Gaesum, Olisideron, etc. 
('Historia Liter aria, 7 Mohedano, hi. 336). 

In Spanish, the sword is called cuchillo, the blade cuchilla, a 
gash cuchillada, a stab estocada. Foils with buttons are called 
negras, without blancas. Guerra at cuchillo, or, war to the knife, 
was the answer of Palafox to the summons of surrender ; and 
generally follows the other national cry, Mueran los gavachos, 



OLD SWORDS OLD CASTLES. 241 

death to the miscreant French. For knives, see Albacete, 
p. 504. 

The transition from old swords to old castles is easy : as 
Toledo was the capital of the south frontier of Spain, it was 
well defended against the Moors by mediaeval fortresses. The 
hilly lines of Monies de Toledo, Sierra del Duque, etc., with the 
moat rivers of the Tagus and Guadiana, formed noble sites for 
defence. These wild and picturesque scenes have scarcely been 
investigated ; but well deserve more notice from the artist and 
antiquarian. 



11 



242 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 



HIGHWAY TO SEVILLE 



THE ROAD. 

We had whiled away the best portion of the day after our 
return from Toledo, and had refreshed our eyes with the con- 
trasts that the pleasant walks and cooling fountains of the 
Palace yielded to the hot sand and scorching influences of the 
Madrid sun, until we were favored with a seat inside of the 
diligence, which was passing through Aranguez on its route 
from the capital to Seville. At 10 o'clock at night we fell 
asleep in the middle of the coupe, and there we remained 
speechless and thoughtless until I learnt on the morrow that 
I had been closeted in the dark with a French Count, and a 
Spanish hidalgo. On that day I was weary enough of the 
dull, dreary and desolate country through which we were driven, 
having nothing to relieve my mind but the perusal of my 
guide-book's description of Ocafia, La Guardia, and other unin- 
teresting places passed during the night. 

Now, as to Ocana, between which and Los Barrios, the 
Spaniards, November 19, 1809, lost a most important battle. 
The Junta of Seville determined, in defiance of the Duke's 
warning and entreaties, to assume the offensive. His letters 
seem really to have been written after the events, and not 
before them, so truly did he prophesy certain discomfiture, the 
loss of Andalucia, and his own compulsory retreat into Portu- 



BATTLE OF LOS BARRIOS. 243 

gal. The Junta prepared an army of 60,000 men, armed and 
equipped by England. Command was given to one Juan Car- 
los de Areizaga, who advanced from the defiles, giving out that 
the English were with him; and such fear thereupon prevailed 
at Madrid, where the report was believed, that the enemy 
thought at once of retreating without a fight; and had Arei- 
zaga advanced, he must have surprised and overwhelmed the 
handful of French at Aranjeuz. Having, however, by his 
delay given Soult the means of collecting troops, he then, as if 
infatuated, risked a battle in the plain. There two short hours 
more than sufficed for 25,000 French to put 55,000 Spaniards 
to an indescribable rout, during which Areizaga placed himself 
on a belfry in Ocana, a mute spectator of his own disgrace, 
giving no directions whatever, except to order his reserve, a 
body of 15,000 men, who had not fired a shot, to retreat. He 
and Freire then set the example of flight; nor did either even 
attempt to make a stand behind the impregnable rocks of 
JDespeha-perros Alcald la Real. Their unhappy troops, deserted 
by their chiefs, could but follow their leaders. La Mancha was 
covered with runaways. Soult took 42 cannon, 26,000 pris- 
oners, and killed 5,000, while his loss barely reached 1,600. 

Buonaparte, who, jealous that it could be supposed in 
France that any one could do great things except himself (Foy, 
i. 159), scarcely mentioned the victory in the Monilewr; yet as a 
victory it was most important, since it fixed Joseph on the tot- 
tering throne, gave Granada to Sebastiani, Seville to Soult, and 
place the treasures and supplies of rich unpillaged Andalucia 
in the hands of the ravenous invaders. " Alas ! " said the Duke, 
whose great plans were thus frustrated, "that a cause which 
promised so well a few weeks ago, should have been so com- 
pletely lost by the ignorance, presumption, and mismanagement 



244 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

of those to whose direction it was confided." (Disp. December 
6, 1809.) "Nothing would do but fighting great battles in 
plains, in which their defeat is as certain as is the commencement 
of the battle." Ferdinand VIL, a prisoner at Yalengay, was 
mean or false enough, probably both, to write to congratulate 
Joseph on this victory (Schep. i. 69); while Areizaga, who lost 
it, instead of being cashiered, was presented by the Junta with 
a fine horse, and was afterwards made Captain General of 
Biscay, by this very Ferdinand, in 1814. 

After the battle, the wretched town of Ocafia was merci- 
lessly sacked by Soult, who then destroyed the precious ar- 
chives of the Ayuntamiento. 

La Guardia, rising on a ridge of rocks, was once an outpost 
guard against the Moors. Here, and indeed generally in the 
corn-growing central plains, the traveler should remark the eras, 
the common Spanish and orientel threshing-floors in the open 
air, and the driving the trilo over the corn, without horses, after 
the most Homeric fashion. The females, hereabouts, look half 
Swiss, half Dutch, with their blue and green petticoats and hand- 
kerchiefs under their chins. The miserable population, driven 
from their houses, that were gutted by the French, and which 
they are too poor to repair, burrow like rabbits in troglodite- 
excavations, whence they emerge to beg of the diligence as it 
ascends the hill. Madridejos with its nice, cool, and refreshing 
inn furnished us with excellent bread, although the water was 
bad, and the cheese not much better, however well it did for the 
Alforgas of honest, hungry, Sancho Panza, and his muleteer 
digestion. Four miles from Manzanares, to the right, is 
Argamasella del Alba, in the prison of which Cervantes wrote 
Don Quixote. Now we are in the middle of the scenes so 
admirably described by Cervantes in his romance and it is a 



don Quixote's territory. 245 

convenient place to start from on a trip into Don Quixote's 
country. El Toboso is a poor place, although of European re- 
putation ; the name is derived from the tolas, or sort of porous 
stones, which still, as in the time of Cervantes, are much used 
in making water-jars. According to Cervantic commentators, 
the original of the Don's sweetheart Dulcinea, Aldonza Lorenzo 
Corchuelo, was a Miss Aldonza (a word which means sweet) 
Zarco de Morales, and she lived in the still existing Casa de 
Torrecilla. Continuing the high road to Seville is Puerto 
Lapiche, a poor place, where the Don informed Sancho that 
they might get elbow-deep in adventures. The " Pass " is 
placed between two olive-clad gentle slopes, with sundry groups 
of windmills, which being smaller than ours, are really not un- 
like giants at a distance ; they are very numerous, for this 
is a country of much corn to grind, and little water power, 
The crack-brained knight might well be puzzled by these mills, 
for they were novelties at that time, having only been introduced 
into Spain in 1515, and had just before perplexed even Cardan, 
the wise man of the age, who describes one as if it had been 
a steam engine : "Nor can I pass over in silence what is so 
wonderful, that before I saw it I could neither believe nor re- 
late without incurring the imputation of credulity ; but a thirst 
for science overcame bashfulness." 

At the Vent a de Quesada Don Quixote (quesada, lantern- 
jawed) was knighted, and Cervantes must have sketched the 
actual inn, and its still existing well. The water communicates 
with the Quadiana, the underground Mole of Spanish rivers. 
Indeed the ancient name, Anas, is derived from this "hide and 
seek" propensity; Hanas in the Punic, and Hanasa in the Ara- 
bic, signifying "to appear and disappear." It is called the 
Lwcalee by the Spanish Gitanos. 



246 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

The Wadi-Anas, like the Guadalquiver, eats its dull way 
through loamy banks : it rises in the swamps, or Lagunas de 
Ruidera, and loses itself again fifteen miles from its source, at 
Tomelloso ; it re-appears after flowing seven leagues under- 
ground at Daymiel. The Jakes which it throws up are called 
the eyes, Los ojos de la Guadiana, and the ground above is 
called the bridge. This and the eyes lead to trivial witticisms, 
in regard to the dark glancing Manchegas and this bridge's 
superiority over the Pont ISeuf at Paris. The disappearance 
is not sudden like that of the Rhone, which descends into a 
gulf, as here it is sucked up into unpicturesque marshes. Their 
chief interest arises from Don Quixote. The Cueva de Monte- 
sinos, into which the knight descended, although the name 
savors of romance and the peerage of Charlemagne, really 
exists in the Campo de Montiel, which was the last scene of the 
fratricidal warfare between Pedro the Cruel and Henry of 
Trastamara, who here killed his king and brother, aided by 
French knights, by whom the monarch was held unfairly down 
in the death-struggle. The cave lies about one league from the 
village of Osa de Montiel; it is near the Ermita de Saelices, 
and one of the lagunas, of which by the way there are eleven, 
and not seven, as Cervantes says. They are full of fish ; each 
has its own name, that of La Colgada being the largest and 
most interesting, because its cool waters are guarded by the 
rock-built ruined castle of Rochafrida, in which lived Roca 
Florida, to whom Montesinos was married. 

Al Castillo Ilaman Rocha, 
Y a la fuente Frida. 

These lakes, these eyes of the Guadiana, which, according to 
the Don, are fed from the tears of Belerma, with her seven 



VINO MORO. 24 T 



daughters and two maidens weeping for her dead Durandante, 
are really formed by the accumulation of waters which flow 
down from the Sierra de Alcaraz. The Cueva itself is about 
forty yards wide and sixty deep, and is used as a refuge in 
storms by hunters and shepherds. The entrance is blocked up 
with underwood. As in Don Quixote's time, it is the haunt of 
bats and birds, who have deposited a bed of guano nearly a 
foot thick. The cave probably was part of an ancient mine, 
as a labyrinth of shafts have been traced, and heaps of metallic 
rubbish, escoriales, found. 

After leaving Manzanares, the men get browner and poorer, 
the women more ugly, and the country and cloak more rusty 
and threadbare. Hemp is a luxury for shoes, and the rare 
stocking is made like that of Yalencia without feet, an emblem 
of a student's purse, open and containing nothing. The cloaked 
peasants grouped around their mud cabins seem to be statues 
of silence and poverty, yet the soil is fertile in corn and wine. 

Hence to Yaldepenas, celebrated for its wines. The red 
blood of the grape issues from this valley of stones, and is the 
produce of the Burgundy vine, transplanted into Spain. The 
liquor is kept in huge tinejas or jars ; when removed it is put 
into pig-skins, cueros, such as Don Quixote attacked. The 
wine, when taken to distant places, is generally adulterated. 
When pure it is rich, fruity, full bodied, high colored, and will 
keep well, and improve for ten years. The best Bodegas are 
those which belonged to Don Carlos, Juan Puente, and the 
Marquis of Santa Cruz, who has a mansion here. The wine is 
worth on the spot about £i, the pipe ; the land carriage is, 
however, expensive, and it is apt, when conveyed in skins, 
to be tapped and watered by the muleteers, whence vino moro — 
that is, wine which has never been thus baptized — is proverbi- 



248 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 



ally popular. Valdepeiias sometimes goes wrong during the 
sea voyage ; the best plan is to send up double quarter sherry 
casks, which then must be conveyed to Cadiz or Santander. 

Now to the next town, Santa Cruz de Mudela has no other 
celebrity than its garters, which the women offer for sale to the 
passengers ; some are gaily embroidered and enlivened with 
mottoes : " Honi soit qui mal y pense." 

This whole region, naturally dreary and dull by nature is 
inspired by the genius of Cervantes. Near Torre Nueva Don 
Quixote liberated the galley slaves. In the immediate pre- 
sence of the Sierra to the right was the scene of the Knight's 
penance, and before reaching the gorge of Despenaperros, to 
the left is the Venta de Cardenas, where we think of Cardenio 
and Dorethea, and if I mistake not are reminded of the cage 
into which the redoubtable knight of the woeful countenance 
was thrust by his companions, and carried home in a vision of 
enchantment at the end of his second adventure. 

How wonderful is the magic power of mind, and how instruc- 
tive the creations of a fertile imagination. So true was Cervan- 
tes to the genius of his country and the spirit of the age, that 
even to this day, royal and true hidalgos of sorrowful and proud 
countenances may be found in La Mancha, with plenty of trusty 
and patient Sanchos ready to follow the beck and the nod of 
the haughty poor and raggedly-cloaked Castillaiio, who boasts 
only of his chivalry and honor, and exults in the sentiment, that 

Que quando se dicen Espafia, dicen todo. 
That when you say Spain, you have said everything. 

La Mancha and its glorious Don Quixote of the lantern- 
jaws, will live for ever in the fields of honor. Such is the last- 
ing influence of the name of Cervantes, that it seems to be 



POWER OF GENIUS. 249 



engraven on every rock in that sterile sierra, and so great the 
vivid force of his talent that the pregnant spirit of his inven- 
tion has caused "the wilderness to blossom as the rose," and the 
mountain of that naked land to be adorned with the flowers of 
his intellect and beauty. All honor, therefore, be unto Cer- 
vantes, the author of the best romance ever written, and here 
a health to the departed spirit of Chivalry in the person of the 
illustrious, magnanimous and generous Don. 

The province of La Mancka, which we are now leaving, 
contains about 1500 square miles, with a scanty population 
of 250,000. It is chiefly table-land, elevated at a mean height 
of 2000 feet above the sea-level. Although apparently a plain, 
it is very undulating ; in the dips, occasionally, a streamlet 
creates a partial verdure and fertility, but water is the great 
want. Denuded of trees, it is exposed to the cutting wintry 
blasts, and scorched by the calcining summer : tawny and arid 
is the earth, while the dust impregnated with saltpetre, and the 
fierce glare of the sun blind the eye, wearied with prospects of 
uniform misery and a total want of anything of interest, either in 
man or his works, or the nature with which he is surrounded ; the 
traveler is sickened with the wide expanse of monotonous steppes. 

The towns are few, poverty stricken, and without a par- 
ticle of comfort or interest ; the mud-built villages, the 
abodes of under-fed, ill-clothed laborers ; besides the want of 
water, fuel is so scarce that dry dung is substituted. These 
hamlets, wretched enough before, were brutally sacked by the 
Duponts and Soults, and never have recovered. The plains 
produce much corn, saffron, and in some places rich wines: the 
mules are celebrated. Manchego is honest, patient, and hard- 
working when there is any one to hire ; his affections are more 
developed than his reason. Temperate, brave, and moral, he 

11* 



250 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

is attached and confiding when kindly used and honestly dealt 
with ; reserved and stern when he supects ill-treatment and in- 
justice. He is plainly clad in patio far do with a montera on his 
head, a most inconvenient cap, which neither defends the head 
from the sun, the rain or cold ; yet, in spite of all these untoward 
circumstances in man and his country, this is the province of the 
song and dance, the Seguidilla Manchega. Honest, homely 
Sancho Panza is a real Manchegan peasant. He is the true 
Juan Espahol, the simple gaffer goosy, the John Bull of Spain. 
Dos Jaanes con un Pedro, hacen un asnon cntero. 

La Carolina, the chief place of the new town in the Sierra 
barrier of this district, affording a striking change in the climate 
and vegetation before the frontier is entered, is perfectly unin- 
teresting and un-Spanish, although much admired by the native 
because so European and civilized. 

Carolina. The fair skins of the people, and the roads planted 
with trees, are more German than Spanish ; population 2800. 
The wild hills were formerly left to the robber and the wolf, 
without roads or villages. Spain, after colonizing the new 
world and expelling her rich Jews and industrious Moors, was 
compelled to repeople the Despoblados with foreign settlers. 
In 1767, Don Pablo Olavides, a Peruvian by birth, planned the 
immigration of Germans and Swiss to what they were told was 
a " mountain paradise," by a bribe of pecuniary assistance and 
promise of immunities ; all these pledges were broken, and most 
of the poor foreigners died broken-hearted of the maladie du 
pays, execrating Spain, and remembering their sweet Argos. 
Olavides himself, this modern Cadmus or Deucalion, who had 
infused life into the silent mountains, fell in his turn a victim to 
bigotry and ingratitude. One stipulation had been the non- 
admission of monkish drones into these new hives : a capuchin 



NATURAL THERMOPYLAE. 251 

named Romualcl, thereupon denounced him to the Inquisition ; 
he was arrested in 1716, his property confiscated, and he him- 
self confined in a convent in La Mancha, subject to such a 
penance as the monks should inflict. He escaped into France, 
shaking Spanish dust off his feet for ever. 

Soon the road ascends to Las Correderas, and the magnifi- 
cent narrow gorge Despeiia-perros — " throw over dogs," meaning 
" the infidel houndes." This is the natural gateway to dreary 
La Mancha, as Pancorbo is to Castile. Welcome now gay An- 
dalucia and the tropical vegetation. Those who advance north 
exchange an Eden for a desert, while those who turn their 
backs on the capital, at every step advance into a more genial 
climate and a kindlier soil. In the war of independence the 
Seville Junta only talked of fortifying this natural Thermopylae, 
this Bolan pass ; nothing was ever done except on paper ; and 
after the rout of Ocaha the runaways dared not even stand be- 
hind the rocks, where 100 old Greeks would have checked the 
advance and saved Andalucia. January 20, 1810, the French, 
under Dessolles, forced the pass in spite of the heroes of Bailen 
and their ten thousand men, who dispersed " every man to his 
own home:" and this on the plains of Tolosa ! yet the country 
is a natural fortress, and well did the Duke know its value. It 
might have been made the Torres Vedras of Andalucia. His 
plan, w^hen he contemplated defending Andalucia, which failed 
from the Junta's suspicions regarding Cadiz, was to make Caro- 
lina his head quarters. " I think," said he, " while I am there, 
the French will not venture to pass the Sierra." Now, when 
he was not there, Gazan, in two days, was master of fifty miles 
of almost impregnable passes. 

On the morning of the second day we entered the wretched 
town of Bailen. This had nothing to interest us, but an' old 



252 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

ruined castle with a machicolated tower and a solitary palm 
tree which seemed to have strayed away from Africa, standing 
as it were the habinger of the land of promise and of a more 
genial climate. Here we left behind the Pano pardo, the brown 
cloth, and the alpargata, or the hempen sandal of the poverty- 
striken Manchegos. The memorable battle of Bailen took 
place between the post-houses La Casa del Rey and Bailen. 

When Cuesta had, by being beaten at Rioseco, opened Mad- 
rid to the French, Murat considered the conquest of Andalucia 
to be merely a promenade militaire. Dupont accordingly was 
sent from Toledo, May 24, 1808, with 10,000 men, and boasted 
that on the 21st of June he should be at Cadiz : his forces were 
next increased by 12,950 more men under Yedel : but Dupont 
mismanaged the whole campaign : he arrived, without obsta- 
cles, at Andujar, and then neither pushed on to Cadiz, nor fell 
back on Madrid while the mountains were open. Meanwhile 
Castafios was enabled to move from Algeciras, by the help of a 
loan advanced by the merchants of Gibraltar, and marched 
towards Andujar with 25,000 men : his army, both in men and 
generals, was little more than nominally Spanish. The first 
division was Swiss, and commanded by Reding, a Swiss ; the 
second was commanded by De Coupigny, a Frenchman ; the 
third by Jones, an Irishman, and the best troops were Wal- 
loons. The fourth division, which really consisted of Spaniards, 
who now claim all the glory, never fired a shot, while Castafios, 
their chief, only "arrived after the battle was gained ; previously 
Dupont had so mismanceuvred and scattered his forces, that 
Castafios, by marching Reding to the right, got between him 
and Yedel. The positions were singular, each being placed in 
these hilly defiles between two fires : Dupont between Castafios 
and Reding, Reding between Dupont and Vedel. 



A RONCESVALLES. 253 



July 18, Dupont quitted Andujar in the night, and was met 
at daybreak of the 19th by Reding and Coupigny, drawn up in 
a strong hill position. The battle was of short duration, for 
the French had become demoralized by indulgence in pillage ; 
more than 1,500 men were actually employed in guarding the 
"impedimenta," or wagons of plunder, and some high officers, 
says Foy, (iv. 100,) "anxious to secure their butin infame, 
were ready to listen to dishonor ;" the uneven country was also 
in favor of Reding, as it rendered all scientific manoeuvring 
impossible ; in short it was a Roncesvalles. 

The report of the firing during the contest brought up La 
Pefia with the fourth Spanish brigade, and Yedel with his divi- 
sion ; thus Reding was attacked in front and rear by Dupont 
and Yedel, while Dupont was exposed in the same manner to 
Reding and La Pena ; but the Spaniards arrived first, for 
Videl had halted some hours to- permit his troops to convert 
into soup a flock of goats which they had caught : thus nearly 
20,000 Frenchmen were sold for a mess of pottage. All par- 
ties w ere anxious to come to terms, particularly the chiefs, 
Dupont and Castaiios ; indeed the latter, on his arrival, after 
all the fighting was over, would have granted a convention of 
Cintra, had he not been prevented by Tilli, a sort of commis- 
sioner of the Seville junta. Eventually, on the 23rd, H,635 
Frenchmen laid down their arms. The panic spread far and 
wide; whole detachments of French along the road to Madrid 
volunteered their own submission. Joseph Buonaparte fled 
from Madrid instantly, having first pillaged everything ; but 
the invaders ran away from the coming shadows of only their 
own fears, for Castaiios, so far from advancing on the foe, more 
amazed at his victory, than even the French at their defeat, 
actually marched back to Seville to dedicate flags to St. Ferdi 



254 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

nand ; nor did he reach Madrid until August 23, when be pro- 
ceeded to kneel before the Atocha image of the Virgin, and 
thank her for her interference (Schep. i. 458). Meanwhile 
Buonaparte was silently preparing his great revenge unmolested 
by the Spaniards, who quietly reposed under their laurels, not 
taking the smallest steps even to dislodge the French runaways 
from the line of the Ebro ; they thought the war concluded by 
one blow ; and even the sober English caught the infection, and 
imagined Bailen to be a tragedy to be repeated whenever the 
French appeared, until further notice. The rewards given to 
Castafios, this conqueror by deputy, were as slow as his military 
movements ; he was not made Duque de Bailen until nearly a 
quarter of a century afterwards, and then simply and solely 
because Christina was anxious to create a liberal party for her 
own ends. To his praise be it said that he was free from mean 
jealousies, and cheerfully served under English commanders, 
and of all his countrymen was best liked by their allies. He, 
also, to his honor, opposed the Punic manner in which the con- 
vention of Bailen was broken. Retaliation and poetical justice 
were satisfied rather than good faith. The French, who had 
sowed in the storm, now reaped in the whirlwind. "They were 
treated," says Southey, (ch. viii.,) "as criminals rather than 
soldiers ; as men who had laid down their arms, but could not 
lay down their crimes." "On leur reclamait avec menaces et 
injures les vases sacrees des eglises." Many were massacred 
in cold blood on the road, others were starved in the Cadiz 
hulks, the rest were exposed on the desolate island of Cabrera, 
without food or clothing, to feed on each other like howling wild 
beasts, in spite of the indignant remonstrances of English officers, 
who are now charged by the French ! with the guilt of the very 
crimes which they did everything in their power to prevent. 



TARTAR CHARGE OF CAVALRY. 255 

Buonaparte concealed Bailen and the truth from his slaves : 
" Les Frangais," says Foy, "n'en eurent me'me pas connais- 
sance." When the retreat from Madrid could no longer be 
kept back, he only hinted in the " Moniteur," September 6, 
that the heat of the weather and the superiority of Ebro water 
were the causes ; just as at Trafalgar he ascribed the accidental 
disaster to the elements. And a disaster this accident really 
proved to Spaniards, for they now took the exception for the 
rule, and imagined that their raw levies, wanting in everything, 
and led by incapable officers, could beat the highly organized 
veterans of France led by good commanders ; in vain the Duke 
urged them to keep to their hills, and wage a Fabian defensive 
warfare, which history, the nature of the broken country, and 
the admirable guerrilla qualities of the Spanish people pointed 
out. Bailen always interfered ; they were always fighting it 
over again, planning how to catch -all the French at once in one 
trap. This idea led them to quit the mountains and descend 
into the fatal plains, there to extend their lines, in order to sur- 
round the enemy, when these Tartars, by one charge of cavalry, 
generally put them to rout. 

Meanwhile the effect of Bailen was electrical ; for the truth 
could not be quite stifled, even in France. Europe aroused 
from her moral subjection ; Spain retook her place among 
nations ; and England, thinking her now worthy of her friend- 
ship, rushed to her final deliverance. 

Continuing on to Seville, the road soon descends the hills over 
a broken country, over which the Rumblar boils. The moun- 
tains in this neighborhood abound in game. Passing on through 
fertile tracts of corn and olives, you are soon reminded of the 
presence of a more generous and pleasing aspect in nature. 
Before reaching Andujar, how different is the appearance of 



256 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

smiling Andalousia, when contrasted with the dreary and de- 
serted waste of La Mancha, and its poverty stricken inhabi- 
tants. A succession of olive groves now meet the eye, extend 
their lengths for miles, and even up to the vicinity of Seville. 
How superior is the style of the houses, having their outsides 
neatly whitewashed, and windows concealed by nicely painted 
blinds. How much better clad are the people. Here the tidy 
and buttoned hat, rich red sashes, binding the waist, and the 
embroidered garter, are jauntily worn by the graceful majos. 
At Carpio the costumes of the women change, and the majos 
wear green serge sayas, and handkerchiefs and shawls, instead 
of mantillas. Cities of considerable wealth now fill the plains, 
and rich harvests of ripe fruit and golden grain, rejoice the 
mind, as they gladden the labor of the husbandman. The whole 
land wears the tokens of prosperity, and forebodes the presence 
of a happy and contented peasantry. 

According to the custom of travel in the South of Spain, we 
rested at the inn during the hottest portion of the day, and 
whilst some of the passengers were eating, and others smoking, 
or sleeping, we had leisure enough to examine the principal 
features of this place. Here are made the porous, cooling clay 
drinking vessels, alcarrazos, arabice, which, filled with water, 
and arranged in stands, or tallas, are seized upon by thirsty 
Spaniards on entering every venta. Besides a mosque in An- 
dujar, there is a dilapidated old bridge, over the Guadalquiver. 

At midnight, under the light of a full moon, we entered Cor- 
dova. Passing through at that hour of the night, it was of 
course impossible for us to see the noble bridge, by which the 
Guadalquiver is crossed at Alcolea, or to visit the interior of 
the Mezquita, the celebrated mosque. Cordova, therefore, with 
its olives and palm trees, backed by the convent-crowned 



TOWN TO BE BORN IN. 257 

sierra, having a truly Oriental aspect, may be better seen at a 
distance, by reading Ford's excellent description, in his " Gath- 
erings." 

CORDOVA. 

Cordova retains its ancient name. Cor is a common Iberian 
prefix, and tuba is said to mean important, liar la tuba. Cor- 
duba, under the Carthaginians, was the "gem of the South." 
It sided with Pompey, and was therefore half destroyed by 
Caesar: 23,000 inhabitants were put to death in terrorem. His 
lieutenant, Marcellus, (Hirt. B. A. 57,) rebuilt the city, which 
was repeopled by the pauper patricians of Rome; hence, its 
epithet, "Patricia;" and pride of birth is still the boast of this 
poor and servile city. La cejpa de Cordova, is the aristocratic 
" stock," like the ceti of Cortona in Italy. As the Cordovese 
barbs w T ere of the best blood, so the nobles boasted to be of the 
bluest. La sangre su is the azure of this elite of the earth, in 
contradistinction to common red blood, the puddle which flows 
In plebeian veins; while the blood of heretics, Lutherans, 
Protestants, political enemies, and Jews, is held by Spanish 
sangrados and heralds, to be black, pitchy, and therefore com- 
bustible (see 'Gatherings'). The Great Captain, who was 
born near Cordova, used to say that " other towns might be 
better to live in, but none were better to be born in." 

The genius and imagination of its authors, astonished ancient 
Rome. Seneca (De Suas. 6 sub. fin.), quoting Cicero, speaks 
of the " pingue quiddam atque peregrinum." as the character- 
istic of the style of Sextilius Ena, one of the poets of facunda 
Cordoba f the birth-place of himself, the unique Lucan, the two 



258 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

Senccas, and of other Spaniards who, writing even Latin, sus- 
tained the decline of Roman poetry and literature. 

Cordova, under the Goths, was termed " holy and learned." 
Osius, the counselor of Constantine, and the friend of St. 
Athanasius, who called him navovoiog, was its bishop from 294 
to 357: he presided at the Council of Nice, and was the first 
to condemn prohibited books to the fire. Under the Moors, 
Cordova became the Athens of the West, or, in the words of 
Basis, the " nurse of science, the cradle of captains." It pro- 
duced Avenzoar, or, to write more correctly, Abdel Malek Ibn 
Zohr, and Averroes, whose proper name is Abu Abdallah Ibn 
Roshd ; he it was who introduced Aristotle to Europe, and, in 
words of Dante, "il gran commento feo." The wealth, luxury, 
and civilization of Cordova, under the Beni-Ummeyah dynasty, 
almost seems an Aladdin tale; yet Gayangos has demonstrated 
its historical accuracy. All was swept away by the Berbers, 
true Barbarians, who burnt palace and library. 

Spanish Cordova for some time produced sons worthy of its 
ancient renown. Juan de Mena, the Chaucer, the morning star 
of Spanish poetry, was born here in 1412; as were Ambrosio 
Morales, the Hearne, the Leland of the Peninsula, in 1513; and 
Tomas Sanchez, the Jesuit and author of the treatise De Matri- 
nionio, which none but a celibate monk could have written; the 
best edition is that of Antwerp, 3 vols, folio, 1601. Here, in 
1538, was born Pablo de Caspedes, the learned painter and poet; 
and in 1561, Luis de Gongora, the Euphuist; and near here, 
at Montilla, was born Gonzalo de Cordova, the great (and 
truly great) Captain of Spain. Well, therefore, might Juan 
de Mena follow Rasis in addressing his birth-place as " the 
flower of knowledge and knighthood." 

Cordova was always celebrated for its silversmiths, who 



TRUTH SRANGER THAN FICTION. 259 

came originally from Damascus, and continue to this day to 
work in that chased filigree style. Juan Ruiz, El Vandolino, 
is the Cellini of Cordova. The joyas — Arabice jauhar, bril- 
liant — and earrings of the peasantry deserve notice, and every 
now and then some curious antique emerald-studded jewelry 
may be picked u] 

Roman Cordo resisted the Goths until 5T2, but Gothic 
Cordova was tal .n by the Moors at once, by Mugueith el 
Rumi, the Mogued of Spanish writers; at first it became an 
appendage of the Kalifate at Damascus, but in 756, declared 
itself to be independent, and rose to be the capital of the 
Moorish empire of Spain, under Abderahman (Abdu-r-rahman, 
the servant of the compassionate). He was the head and last 
remaining heir of his dynasty, the Ummeyah, which had been 
expelled from the East by the Abasside usurpers. No fiction 
of romance ever surpassed the truth of his eventful life. Under 
nim Cordova became the rival of Baghdad and Damascus, and 
was the centre of power and civilization in the West, and this 
at a time when weakness, ignorance, and barbarism shrouded 
over the rest of Europe. It contained, in the tenth century, 
nearly a million of inhabitants, 300 mosques, 900 baths, and 
600 inns. It withered under the Spaniard ; and is now a dirty, 
benighted, ill-provided, decaying place, with a population about 
55,000. 

Cordova is soon seen. This Athens under the Moor is now 
a poor Bceotian place, the residence of local authorities, with a 
liceo, theatre, a casa de espositos, plaza de toros, and a national 
museo and library of no particular consequence: a day will 
amply suffice for everything. The city arms are " a bridge 
placed on water," allusive to that over the river : the founda- 
tions are Roman. 



260 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

The Alcazar rises on the left, and was built on the site of the 
Balatt Ludheric, the castle of Roderick, the last of the Goths, 
whose father, Theofred, was Duke of Cordova ; formerly it was 
the residence of the Inquisition, and then, as at Seville, of 
miserable invalid soldiers. The lower portions were converted 
into stables by Juan de Mingares in 1584, for the royal stal- 
lions : near Cordova and Alcolea were the principal breeding- 
grounds for Andalucian barbs, until the establishment was 
broken up by the French, who carried off the best mares and 
stallions. Here, under the Moors, was the Alar as (und Huras), 
the mounted guard of the king, and they were either foreigners 
or Christians, Mamelukes or Sclavonians. 

The cathedral or the mosque, La Mezquitta as it is still called, 
(mesgad from masegad, Arabice to worship, prostrate), stands 
isolated. The exterior is castellated and forbidding : walk 
round it; observe the square buttress towers, with fire-shaped 
or bearded parapets; it is the type of that which was afc 
Seville. Examine the Moorish spandrils of the different 
entrances. Enter the Court of Oranges at the Puerta del 
Perdon, of which the type is truly Oriental (1 Chr. xxviii. 6). 
The cistern was erected in 945-6, by Abdu-r-rahman. In 
this once sacred refievog and " Grove," this "court of the 
House of God, importunate beggars, although bearded, 
cloaked, Homeric, and patriarchal, worry the stranger and 
dispel the illusion. Ascend the belfry tower, which, like 
the Giralda, was shattered by a hurricane in 1593; it was 
recased and repaired the same year by Fernan Ruiz, a native 
of this city. The courtyard was built by Said Ben Ayub in 
93*7; it is 430 feet by 210. The nineteen entrances into the 
mosque are now closed, save that of the centre. Observe the 
military columns found in the middle of the mosque during the 



QUINCUNX OF PILLARS. 261 

repairs of 1532: the inscriptions, re-engraved in 1132, record 
the distance, 114 miles, to Cadiz, from the Temple of Janus, on 
the site of which the mosque was built. The interior of the 
cathedral is like a basilicum, with a labyrinth, a forest or 
quincunx of pillars. It was chiefly constructed out of the 
materials of a temple of Janus, consecrated to Christian 
worship during the period of the Gothic domination. Out 
of the 1200 columns— now reduced to about 854 — which once 
supported its low roof, 115 came from Nismes and Narbonne, 
in France; sixty from Seville and Tarragona, in Spain; while 
140 were presented by Leo, Emperor of Constantinople ; the 
remainder were detached from the temples at Carthage and 
other cities of Africa; the columns are in no way uniform — 
some are of jasper, porphyry, verd-antique, and other choice 
marbles : neither are their diameters equal throughout, the 
shafts of some wmich were too long, having been either sawed 
off or sunk into the floor to a depth of four and even five and 
six feet ; while in those too short, the deficiency was supplied 
by means of a huge and disproportionate Corinthian capital, 
thus destroying all harmony and uniformity. 

Abdu-r-rahman began the present mosque, July 2, 186, 
copying that of Damascus; dying June 10, 188, it was finished 
by his son Hixem in 193-4, and was called Ceca, Zeca, the 
house of purification, the old Egyptian Sekos {ar l ao; 1 adytum). 
In sanctity it ranked as the third of mosques, equal to the 
Alaksa of Jerusalem, and second only to the Caaba of Mecca. 
Conde, i. 226, details its magnificence and ceremonials. A pil- 
grimage to this Ceca was held to be equivalent in the Spanish 
Moslem to that of Mecca, where he could not go ; hence 
andar de zeca en meat became a proverb for wanderings, and 
is used by Sancho Panza when soured by blanket tossings. 



262 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

So much for the mosque. The modern addition is the Coro; 
this was done in 1523 by the Bishop Alonso Manrique. The 
city corporation, with a taste and judgment rare in such bodies, 
protested against this " improvement ;" but Charles Y., unac- 
quainted with the locality, upheld the prelate. When he 
passed through in 1526, and saw the mischief, he thus reproved 
the chapter : " You have built here what you, or any one, 
might have built anywhere else; but you have destroyed what 
was unique in the world. You have pulled down what was 
complete, and you have begun what you cannot finish." 

The walk round the lonely walls is picturesque. They are 
Moorish, and built of tapia with their gates and towers, they 
must have been nearly similar to that circumvallation as 
described by Caesar. (B. C. ii. 19). Observe the beautiful 
group of palms overtopping the wall from a convent garden 
near the Puerta de Plasecia. The first ever planted in Cor- 
dova was by the royal hand of Abdu-r-rahman, who desired 
to have a memorial of his much loved and always regretted 
Damascus ; his plaintive sonnet is still extant. 

The Moors and Spaniards have combined to destroy all 
the Roman antiquities of Cordova. The aqueduct was taken 
down, to build the convent of San Jeronimo. In 1730 an 
amphitheatre was discovered during some accidental diggings 
near San Pablo, and reinterred. 

Ecija, Astigi, where we arrived on the following morning, 
and remained until four o'clock in the afternoon, in the time of 
the Romans was a town equal to Cordova; it rises on the 
Genii, the great triubutary of the Guadalquivir. Although 
well-built, and rich in corn and oil, it is a very uninteresting 
town. From the extreme heat, it is called the frying-pan, 
or La Sartenilla, of Andalucia; accordingly it bears for arms 



"grey mare the better horse." 263 

the sun, with this modest motto, Una sola sera llamada la 
Ciudad del Sol ; thus frying-pans assume the titles and decora- 
tions of an Heliopolis. It also boasts to have been visited by 
St. Paul, who here converted his hostess, Santa Xantippa, wife 
of one Prohus (these shrew grey mares always have good hus- 
bands). One of the earliest bishops of Ecija was St. Crispin, 
but that was before neighboring Cordova was so famous for its 
Morocco leather. It has a fine alemeda outside the town, 
with statues and fountains representing the seasons. 

Leaving this dull place, the road running by the miserable 
post-houses of La Portuguesa and La Luisiana, called after 
Spanish queens, the only abodes of man in this rich tract 
of neglected country, crosses Moncloa, with its palms and a 
bridge, which was formerly the lair of a gang of robbers, 
called los ninos de Ecija; a-1 though now extinct, these "Boys" 
are immortal in the fears and tales of Spanish muleteers. Con- 
tinuing our way across the aromatic, uninhabited, and unculti- 
vated wastes into the campagna beyond, we ascended to the 
top of a hill in the vicinity of Carmena, whence the view over 
the vast plains below was magnificent; the Ronda and even 
^jrranada chains were to be seen: it was the Grampians from 
Stirling Castle, on a tropical and gigantic scale. 

Carmona, the Moorish Karmunah, with its Oriental walls, 
castle, and position, was very picturesque, as it rose on the east- 
ern extremity of the ridge, commanding the plain both ways. 

We have now reached Mairena, celebrated for its three, days' 
horse-fair, which is held on the 25th, 26th, and 2Tth of April. 
It is a singular scene of gipsies, legs chalanes, and picturesque 
blackguards. Here the majos and majas shine in all their glory. 
The company returns to Seville at sunset, when all the world 
is seated near the Caiios de Carmona, to behold them. The 



264 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

correct thing for the majo fino used to be to appear every day 
on a different horse, and in a different costume. Such a majo 
rode through a gauntlet of smiles, waving fans and handker- 
chiefs ; thus his face was whitened, salio may lucido. The Maja 
always, on these occasions, wore the Caramb , or riband fringed 
with silver, and fastened to the Mofio, or knot of her hair. 
She ought, also, to have the portrait of her Querido around 
her neck. The Majo always had two embroidered handker- 
chiefs — her work — with the corners emerging from one of his 
jacket-pockets. 

Alcald de Guadaira, signifying the castle of the river Aira*, 
likewise celebrated for its fine bread, and numerous water 
springs, was the last place on the road to Seville. It is also 
called, de los Panadoros, "of the bakers," for it has long been 
the oven of Seville ; bread is the staff of its existence, and 
samples abound by the way-side. It is strange that this commo- 
dity of good bread, which is as plenty as blackberries in Spain, 
should be so rare in America. Every village enjoys an abun- 
dance of this staple, while roscas, a circular formed rusk, are 
hung up like garlands, and hogazas, loaves, are placed on tables 
outside the houses. " Panis hie longe pulcherrimus f. it is, in- 
deed, as Spaniards say, Pan de Dios— u the angels' bread of 
Esdras." Spanish bread was esteemed by the Romans for its 
lightness. (Plin. 'N. H./ xviii. 1.) All classes here gain 
their bread by making, and the water-mills, and mule-mills, or 
atahonas, are never still ; they exceed 200 in number ; women 
and children are busy picking out earthy particles from the 
grains, which get mixed, from the common mode of threshing 
on a floor in the open air — the era, or Roman area. The corn 
is very carefully ground, and the flour passed through several 
hoppers, in order to secure its fineness. Visit a large bake- 



WAY OF MAKING BREAD. 265 

house, and observe the care with which the dough is kneaded. 
It is worked and re-worked, as is done by our biscuit-makers, 
hence the close-grained caky consistency of the crumb. The 
bread is taken into Seville every morning. 

Alcala is proverbial for salubrity, and is much resorted to as 
a summer residence ; it always escapes the pestilence, which 
has so often desolated Seville ; it is freshened by the pure 
Ronda breezes, and the air is rarified by the many ovens, of 
which, it is said, there are more than fifty. 

The castle is one of the finest Moorish specimens, and was 
the land-key of Seville. The Moorish city lay under the castle, 
and no longer exists. The river below makes a pretty sweep 
round the rocky base, and the long lines of walls run down, fol- 
lowing the slope of the irregular ground. 

Leaving Alcala, the noble causeway winds gently round the 
hill, hanging over the river. In the plain below, amid orange 
and olive-groves, rise the sun-gilt towers of stately Seville. The 
Moorish Griralda is pre-eminently the prominent point. Next we 
reach La Cruz del Campo, placed in an open Moorish-looking 
temple, but erected in 1842. It is also called el Humilladero : 
Tiere travelers used to kneel and thank the "Virgin and Santiago 
for a safe arrival at their journey's end, having escaped the 
pains and perils of Spanish travel. Now, both these dangers 
and their piety are much decreased. 



ANDALTTCIA. 

The kingdom or province of Andalucia, in facility of access 
and objects of interest, must take precedence over all others in 
Spain. It is the Tarshish of the Bible, the " uttermost parts 

12 



266 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

of the earth," to which Jonah wished to flee. At the Gothic 
invasion this province was overrun by the Vandals, whence 
both sides of the straits were called by the Moors Vandalucia, 
or Bdad-al-Andalosh, the territory of the Vandal. Here, as in 
a congenial soil, the Oriental overtnrner of the Gothic rule took 
the deepest root, and left the noblest traces of power, taste, and 
intelligence — here he made his last desperate struggle, and from 
this gradual recovery of Andalucia, the Oriental divisions into 
separate principalities are retained, and it is still called Los 
Cuatro Reinos,th.e "Four Kingdoms," viz., Seville, Cordova, 
Jaen, and Granada. 

Andalucia contains 2,281 square leagues, and is a land of 
mountain and valley; the grand productive locality is the basin 
of the Guadalquivir, which flows under the range of the Sierra 
Morena. To the south-east rise the mountains of Konda aud 
Granada, which sweep down to the sea. Their summits are 
covered with eternal snow, while the sugar-cane ripens at their 
bases ; the botanical range is, therefore, inexhaustible ; these 
sierras also are absolutely marble and metal-pregnant. The 
cities are of the highest order in Spain, in respect to the fine 
arts and objects of general interest, while Gibraltar is a portion 
of England herself. 

The Andalucians, from the remotest periods of history, have 
been more celebrated for their social and intellectual qualities, 
than for those of a practical and industrial character. They 
are considered by their countrymen to be the Gascons, the 
boasters and braggarts of Spain ; and certainly, from the time 
of Livy (xxxiv. 11) to the present, they are the most 
"imMks," unwarlike, and unmilitary. It is in peace and its 
arts that these gay, good-humored, light-hearted children of a 
genial sun shine the most ; thus, their authors revived literature 



THE ANDALUCIANS. 267 



when the Augustan age died at Rome, as during the darkest 
periods of European barbarism, Cordova was the Athens of the 
west, and at once the seat of arts and science. Again, when 
the sun of Raphael set in Italy, painting here arose in a new 
form in the Velazquez, Murillo, and Cano school of Seville, 
which beyond doubt takes the lead in those of the Peninsula. 

The Oriental imagination of the Andalucians colors every- 
thing up to their bright sun. Their exaggeration, ponderacion, 
or giving weight to nothings, is only exceeded by their credu- 
lity, until they end in believing their own lies. Everything 
with them is either in the superlative or diminutive. Nowhere 
will the stranger hear more frequently those talismanic words 
which mark national character — No se sabe, no se puede, con- 
forme, the " I don't know," "I can't do it ;" "That depends f 
the Manana, pasado manana, the " To-morrow, and day 
after to-morrow f the JBoubra, balboukra, of the procrastinat- 
ing Oriental. Here remain the Bakalum or Veremos, " We will 
see about it f the Pek-eyi or muy Men, "Very well f and the 
Inshallah, si Dios quiere, the " If the Lord will ;" the Gjala, or 
^wishing that God would effect what he wants, the Moslem's 
Enxo-Allah. In a word, here are to be found the besetting sins 
of the Oriental, his ignorance, indifference, procrastination, tem- 
pered by a religious resignation to Providence. The natives 
are superstitious and great worshippers of the Yirgin. Seville 
was the head-quarters of the dispute on the Immaculate Con- 
ception, by which Spain was convulsed. They are remarkable 
for a reliance on supernatural aid, and in all circumstances of 
difficulty call upon their tutelar patrons, with which every town, 
church, and parish is provided. Yet, if proverbs are to be 
trusted, little moral benefit has been the result of their religious 
tendencies. Al Andaluz cata la Cruz ; del Andaluz guarda 



268 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

tu capa y capuz ; that is, even if an Andalucian make the sign 
of the cross, keep a look-out after your cloak and other chattels. 
In no province have smugglers and robbers (convertible terms) 
been longer the weed of the soil. 

In compensation, however, nowhere in Spain is el trato, or 
friendly and social intercourse, more agreeable than in this 
pleasure-loving, work-abhorring province. The native is the 
gracioso of the Peninsular, a term given to the cleverest comic 
actor. Both the gracia, wit and elegance, and the sal Anda- 
luza, are proverbial. This salt, it is true, cannot be precisely 
called Attic, having a tendency to gitanesqne and tauromachian 
slang, but it is almost the national laDguage of the smuggler, 
bandit, hull-fighter -, dancer, and Majo, and who has not heard 
of these worthies of Bastica ? — the Contrabandist a, Ladron, 
Torero, Bailarin, and Majo. Their fame has long scaled the 
Pyrenees, while in the Peninsular itself such persons and pur- 
suits are the rage and dear delight of the young and daring, of 
all indeed who aspire to the " Fancy? or aficion, and to be 
sporting characters. Andalucia is the head-quarters of all this, 
and the cradle of the most eminent professors, who in the other 
provinces become stars, patterns, models, and the envy and 
admiration of their applauding countrymen. The provincial 
dress is extremely picturesque ; it is that of Figaro in our thea- 
tres, and, whatever the merits of tailors and milliners, Nature 
has lent her hand in the good work ; the male is cast in her 
happiest mould, he is tall, well-grown, strong, and sinewy ; the 
female is worthy of her mate, and often presents a form of 
matchless symmetry, to which is added a peculiar and most 
fascinating air and action. The Majo is the dandy of Spain. 
The etymology of this word is the Arabic Majar, brilliancy, 
splendor, jauntiness in walk, which are exactly expressed in the 



" FINE AS A FIDDLER." 269 

costume and bearing of the character. The Majo glitters in 
velvets, filigree buttons, tags and tassels : his dress is as gay as 
his sun ; external appearance is all and everything with him. 
This love of show, boato, is by some derived from the Arabic 
" shouting," by others from batto, betato ; his favorite epithet, 
bizarro, " distinguished" is the Arabic bessara, " elegance of 
form." The Majo is an out-and-out swell, muy fanfaron ; this 
fanfaronade in word and thing is also Moorish, since fanfar 
and hinchar both signify to " distend," and are applied in the 
Arabic and in the Spanish to las narices, the inflation of the 
barb's nostrils, and, in a secondary meaning, to pretention, 
puffed out pretension. The Majo, especially if crudo, or bois- 
terous and raw, is fond of practical jokes ; his outbreaks and 
"larks" are still termed in Spanish by their Arabic names, 
jarano, jaleo, i. e. khala-a, " waggishness." 

The lively and sparkling semi-Moro Andalucian is the anti- 
thesis of the grave and decorous old Castilian, who looks down 
upon him as an amusing and undignified personage. He smiles 
at his harlequin costume and tricks as he does at his peculiar 
dialect, and with reason, as nowhere is the Spanish language 
^more corrupted in words and pronunciation: in fact, it is 
scarcely intelligible to a true Toledan. 

The fittest towns for residence are Granada for the summer, 
and Seville and Malaga for the winter, or Gibraltar (which is 
English, not Spanish), where the creature comforts and good 
medical advice abound. The spring and autumn are the best 
periods for a tour in Andulacia : the summers, except in the 
mountain districts, are intensely hot, and the winters rainy. 

In spite of a fertile soil and beneficent climate, more than 
half Andalucia is abandoned to a state of nature. The soil is 
covered with aromatic underwood, and strewed with remains of 



2 TO TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

Moorish ruins. The land, once a paradise, seems to have been 
cursed by man's ravage and neglect. Nowhere will the traveler 
be better able to study those two things of Spain, the dehesas 
y despoblados, as everywhere here, cultivated lands are turned 
to waste, and districts once teeming with life depopulated. 



SEVILLE. 

" Quien no ha visto a Sevilla, 
No ha visto a maravilla." 

" He who has not at Seville been, 
Has not, I trow, a wonder seen." 

Before proceeding to examine the interior of Seville, we pre- 
face a brief epitome of its past. When men go back to Hispan 
and Hercules for a beginning, it is pretty clear that the history 
and date of its foundation is lost in the obscurity of remote an- 
tiquity. Its old name, Hispal, sounds very Punic ; it was 
doubtless, therefore, a Phoenician settlement, connecting Gaddir 
with Cordova ; the Greek changed the name into Ianola^ and 
the Romans into Hispalis, of which the Moors made Ishbiliah, 
whence Sibilia, consequently Sevilla. Of its anti-Roman his- 
tory, little is known beyond the fact, that it was soon eclipsed 
by Italica, a military town, by Gades, a seaport, and by Cor- 
dova, the residence of patrician settlers. 

Julius Caesar patronised Seville because Cordova espoused 
the cause of Pompey, having captured it August 9, forty-five 
years before Christ. He gave it the title Romula ; still it re- 
mained a more Punic than Roman city, and if by no means the 
splendid, it was, according to Italian writers, walled around. 



RATHER ROMANCE THAN REALITY. 211 

It was the capital of the Goths until the sixth century, and 
surrendered to the Moors at once after the defeat of Don 
Roderick on the Guaclalete, under whose dynasty it remained 
subject until the final overthrow of the western Kalifate that 
had been established at Cordova. In 1031, when rival inte- 
rests and conflicting jealousies split the ill-jointed fabric of 
the Moors into fragments. The Beni Umeyyah family being 
divided against itself, its territory having fallen in the hands of 
separate adventurers, who had set themselves up as kings over 
each province and town, it fell into the hands of St. Ferdinand 
one of the best of kings and bravest of soldiers, shortly after 
he had consolidated the kingdoms of Leon and Castile. 

The details of his advance into Andalueia, the capture of 
Seville, and especially the account of the vision of the Virgin, 
the breaking of the bridge of boats and the prowess of Diego, 
El Machucha, have rather the appearance of a romance than 
reality, in the poem of the Conde de la Roca, "La Sevilla 
Restaur ada," where the author modestly likens himself to 
Tasso, and invokes San Isicloro for his Apollo. Seville surren- 
dered in Xovember 23, 1248, on the Dia de San Ckmente. 
The Emperor of Morocco was driven from his throne, his 
houses and lands were divided among the soldiers, and St. Ferdi- 
nand granted to the city for arms, himself seated on a throne, 
with San Laureano and San Isidoro for his supporters. All 
the persons and events of the siege form subjects for the 
authors and artists of Seville. They have been tersely summed 
up in the distich which is inscribed over the Puerto, de la 
Came. 

" Condedit Alcides — renovavit Julius urbem, 
Restitiut Christo Fernandus tertius heros." 



272 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

" Hercules built, Caesar renewed the City, 
The Hero, Ferdinand the Third, restored it to Christ." 

This is thus paraphrased over the Puerta de Xeres. 

" Hercules me edificio 
Julio Cesar me cerco 

De muros y torres altas ; 
(Tin Rey godo me perdio,) omitted. 
El Rey Santo me gano, 

Con Garci Perez de Vargas" 

" Hercules built me ; Julius Caesar surrounded me with walls 
and lofty towers ; a Gothic King lost me ; a saint-like king 
recovered me, assisted by Garci Perez de Vargas." 

Seville, in the unnatural civil wars after the conqueror's 
death remained faithful to his son and successor. Alonso el 
Subio, the learned, but not wise. He was like the pedant James 
I., " The most learned fool in Christendom," and both would 
have made better professors than kings. Alonzo gave Seville 
the badge, which is seen carved and painted everywhere. It is 
called El ISTodo, and is thus represented : No 8 Do ; the hiero- 
glyphic signifies No-m'ha dexa-Do. " It has not deserted 
me." Madexa in old Spanish meant a knot, and is the Gothic 
Mataxa. 

Seville continued to be the capital of Spain, and especially of 
Don Pedro, who was more than half a Moor, until Charles V. 
removed the Court to Vallaclolid ; yet it remained faithful — • 
true to the sun, although not shone upon — during the outbreak 
of the comuneros, and was rewarded by a motto, a Ab Hercule 
et Csesare nobilitas, a se ipsa fidelitas." The discovery of the 
New World raised Seville to a more than former splendor ; it 
became the mart of the golden colonies, and the residence of 



EARLY HISTORY OF SPAIN. 273 

princely foreign merchants. The French invasion and the sub- 
sequent loss of the transatlantic possessions cast her down from 
her palmy pride of place. The Junta risked the battle of 
Ocana, in despite of the Cassandra warnings of the Duke, and 
were defeated ; the conquerors then overran Andalucia, and in 
a few days the heroic city surrendered (Feb. 2, 1810), without 
even a show of fight. Soult then became its autocrat, for he 
set Joseph at defiance. Here he ruled despotically : " Mercy," 
says Schepeler (hi. 129), who gives the appalling blood-stained 
details, " was erased from his orders of the day." Toreno fxx.) 
estimates the French plunder at six millions sterling. As 
Moore at Sahagun had once before saved the Andalucians, 
now the Duke at Salamanca delivered them again, and Soult 
fled from Seville August 21, 1813, closely followed by Col. 
Skerrett. Sir John Downie, whose Spanish legion would not 
fight, joined the English, who would, and charged the bridge 
three times ; he was wounded and taken prisoner; yet threw 
back to his followers his sword, that its honor might remain 
unsullied ; it was that of Pizarro, and had been given to him 
in reward of previous valor ; he was afterwards made Alcaide 
of the Alcazar. The English entered Seville amid the rap- 
turous acclamations of the inhabitants, thus delivered from 
French terrorism, scaffolds, and confiscation. 

Seville, in 1823, was made the asylum of the bragging 
Cortes, who halted here in their flight from Madrid, and who 
again fled at the first approach of Angouleme ; but this capital 
of the ever unwarlike Andalucians never held out against any 
one except Espartero in July, 1843. That siege lasted about 
nine days, and during six only were any bombs fired. Accord- 
ingly, less than 100 Sevillians were wounded, of whom only 
twenty died: of the assailants only twenty-nine were killed. 

12* 



274 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 



ITS ATTRACTIONS. 

" Fair is proud Seville ; let her country boast 
Her strength, her wealth, her site of ancient days." 

Seville, the marvel of Andalusia, lies on the left bank of the 
Guadalquivir, which flows along the arc of its irregular and 
almost circular shape. Its circumference of about five miles, is 
inclosed in Moorish walls of concrete or tapia, which, toward 
the Puerta of Cordova, are the most perfect in Spain. It is 
the see of an archbishop, having for suffragans — Cadiz, Malaga, 
Ceuta, the Canary Islands and Teneriffe, and contains twenty- 
eight parishes and ten suburbs, of which Triana, on the opposite 
bank, is like the Trastevere of Rome, and the abode of gypsies 
and smugglers. 

Possessing a Royal Alcazar, a Plaza de Toros a (Bull pit), 
two theatres, a public library and museum, a university and 
beautiful walks, it glories in the titular epithets of muy leal y 
noble, to which Ferdinand VII. added muy cheroica, and Senor 
Lopez, in 1843, "invicto" (unsubdued), after the repulse of 
Espartero. 

The city is purely Moorish, as the Moslem, during a posses- 
sion of five centuries, entirely rebuilt it, using the Roman build- 
ings as materials. The climate is so dry and conservative, that 
the best houses are still those erected by the Moors, or on their 
models, they are the most charming and unique; of the Roman 
remains, there are, consequently, scarcely any. Although the 
Sevillians pretend that the walls, and that the Torre del Oro 
(Tower of Gold), was built by Julius Caesar, it is sheer non- 
sense, as they are incontestibly Moorish, both in form and 
construction. The Roman city was very small, and it extended 



MUSEUM OF MOORISH ANTIQUITIES. 275 

from the Puerta de Came to the Puerta de Triana. Several 
pillars of a Roman temple, now deeply imbedded within the 
walls of some Moorish houses, and some well-preserved Roman 
swb-grundaria or under-ground tombs for infants, whose bodies 
were never burnt on funeral piles, have been recently brought 
to light. In one street a subterranean aqueduct was acci- 
dentally discovered, which still flows full of fresh water, al- 
though its existence is absolutely unknown to the majority of 
the citizens, and no steps have been taken to trace or recover 
this precious supply. 

Seville, is however, a museum of Moorish antiquities, and 
the best place to observe the Arabic ceilings and marqueterie 
woodwork, artestonados y ataraccas ; the stucco paneling, Ara- 
bice Tarkish, the lienzos de Almizates, Almocarbes, Ajaracas, 
and the elegant window divided by a marble shaft, Ajimes, an 
Arabic term, meaning an opening which lets in the sunbeam: 
beautiful specimens exist in the Alcazar, Calle Pjaritos, Xo. 15, 
Casa Prieto, Ce. Xaranjos, and Casa Montijo, behind the 
Parroquia of Omnium Sanctorum. A vast number of Moorish 
houses exist, although sadly degraded by adaptations to modern 
wants and usages. The streets are narrow — a wise provision — 
in order to keep them shady during the heat; the exteriors are 
plain, and windows looking to the streets were hardly known 
before the time of Charles V. They are still barricaded with 
rejas, or iron gratings, and protected in summer by an ester a, or 
matting, thus forming a favorite al fresco boudoir for the fair 
sex. The houses generally have an entrance porch, el zaugan 
(Arabice sahan), which leads to the cancel, or open-worked 
iron gate; the interiors are built with an open square court- 
yard, patio, on each side of which are corredores, supported by 
marble pillars ; a fuenle, or fountain, plays in the middle ; this 



2T6 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

court is covered over in summer with an awning, velo, toldo, 
and becomes the drawing-room of the inmates, who, during the 
summer, occupy the cool ground floor, and migrate to the warmer 
upper one in winter. These houses are rich in Moorish porce 
lain tilings, which are still called azulejos. This word, like azul } 
is derived from the Arabic, but from a different root. The 
latter is derived from lazurad, the lapis lazuli ; the former from 
Zulaj, Zideich, a varnished tile. Lazurad, indeed, strictly 
speaking, was borrowed from the Persian; the Arabic word 
blue being zaraco, whence the Spanish zarco, which is only 
applied to blue eyes. Most names of colors in the Spanish are 
derived from Arabic words, such as Albayalde, Carmesi, Gual- 
do, Azulturqui, Ruano, Alazan. The Moor was the chemist 
and decorator, from whom the rude Gotho-Spaniard learned 
his arts and the words to express them. The use of Azulejo, 
is very ancient and Oriental. The sapphire and blue were 
always the favorite tints (Exod. xxiv. 10; Isa. liv. 11). The 
substance is composed of a red clay, the surface of which is 
highly glazed in enameled colors. The material is cool, clear, 
and no vermin can lodge in it. The Moors formed with it most 
ingenious harlequinades, combining color and pattern. 

More than half of Seville is Moorish — but we shall only 
select the cream first. 

THE GIRALDA, 

This beautiful tower is so called from the vane, que gira, 
which turns round. It should be the first object of attraction 
after entering the city. Of this beautiful belfry, and unique in 
Europe, much error has been disseminated. It was built in 
1196, by Abu Jusuf Yacub, who added it to the mosque which 



ASCENT OF THE TOWER. 2T7 

his illustrious father, of the same name, had erected. The 
Moors attached such veneration to this Mueddin tower, that 
before the capitulation they wished to destroy it, but were pre- 
vented by the threat of Alonso el Sabio of sacking the city if 
they did. 

Abu Jusuf Yacub was the great builder of his age; he 
caused a bridge of boats to be thrown across the Guadalquivir, 
on the 11th of October, a. d. 1111. He built also a portion 
of the exterior walls, and erected wharves along the banks of 
the river. He repaired the Roman aqueduct, now known as 
the Caons de Carmona. He raised the great Mosque of 
Seville, which was similar in design and execution to the cele- 
brated Mezquita at Cordova. This tower, like the kootsabea 
of Morocco, and the smaller and unfinished one of Rabat, also 
the works of the same architect, was, probably, erected for the 
double purpose of calling the faithful to prayer, and for as- 
tronomical observations. The original gilt balls by which it 
was surmounted, were thrown down during an earthquake, in 
1395. Thus much says the accurate Gayangos, who has 
cleared away the slough of errors in which many have been 
engulphed, and threatens all those who copy what they find 
written in bad Spanish and worse foreign guides. 

The orignal Moorish tower was only 250 feet high; the 
additional 100, being the rich filigree belfry, was added, in 
1568, by Fernando Ruiz, and is elegant and attractive beyond 
description. It is girdled with a motto from the Proverbs 
(xviii. 10) ; Komen Domini fortissima turris. On grand festivals 
it is lighted up at night, and then seems to hang like a brilliant 
chandelier from the vault of heaven. It is a square of fifty feet. 
The Moorish ajaracas, or sunk patterns, differ on each side. 
The ascent is by easy ramps. The panorama is superb, but 



278 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

the clock, made by a Franciscan monk, one Jose Cordero, 
1164, is here considered the grand marvel; the pinnacle is 
crowned with El Girandillo, a female figure in bronze of La 
Fe, the faith, a somewhat strange choice of sex and character 
for what should never vary or be fickle. The figure is truly 
Italian, and was cast in 1568, by Bartolome Morel. The figure 
is fourteen feet high, weighs 2,800 pounds, and yet veers with 
the slightest breeze. It bears the Labaro, or banner of Con- 
stantine. This belfry is the home of a colony of the twittering, 
careering hawk, the Falco tinnunculoides. The first Christian 
knight who ascended the Giralda after the conquest, was 
Lorenzo Poro (Lawrence Poore), a Scotchman. His descen- 
dant, the Marquis cle Motilla, still owns the ancestral house in 
the Calle de la Cuna. A Scotch herald will do well to look at 
the coat of arms in the Patio. 

The Giralda was the great tower from whence the mueddin 
summoned the faithful to prayers; and here still are his sub- 
stitutes, the bells, for they are almost treated as persons, being 
all duly baptized, before suspended, with a peculiar oil, which 
is consecrated expressly during the holy week, and they are 
christened after saints. When Spanish campanas are rung, 
it is called a repique, which is totally unlike our sweet village 
bells, or impressive cathedral peal. There is no attempt at 
melody in their repique, no chime, no triple-bob majors. The 
music is devoid alike of ringer science, rural rustic melody, or 
the solemn association of sounds, the "nighest bordering on 
heaven." The campanas are headed with cross beams of wood, 
almost of the same weight as the bells themselves, and are 
pulled at until they keep turning round and round, head over 
heels, except when they are very large; then the clapper is 
agitated by a rope, a golpe de badajo. 



COURT OF ORANGES. 219 



The Giralda is under the especial patronage of the two 
Santas Justina y Rufina, who are much revered at Seville, and 
nowhere else. In a thunderstorm, 1504, they scared the devil, 
who unloosed the winds to fight against this church; this, their 
standing miracle, is the one so often carved, and painted by 
Murillo and others: and, due proportions considered, these 
young ladies must have been at least 500 feet high, and a tole- 
rable match for the father of all lies. The Royal Academy of 
Seville, however, published, in 1195, a learned dissertation to 
prove the authenticity of this miracle. JSo wonder, in July, 1843, 
when Espartero bombarded Seville, that the people believed 
that the Giralda was encompassed by invisible angels, headed 
by these tutelars, who turned aside every shot. These ladies 
were the daughters of a potter in Triana, a low suburb, in 
which coarse earthenware is still made. In the year 281, they 
insulted the paso, or graven image of Venus Salambo, and 
were put to death. 

Below the Giralda is the Moorish Patio de los Naranjos, the 
court of orange trees, with the original fountain, at which the 
Moslem once performed his ablutions. Only two sides of "this 
court of the house of the Lord," this tb^isvoq 1 or "grove," 
remain. 

As Seville is the marvel of Andalusia, la Giralda is no less the 
pride and delight of the Sevillians: and as you view the tapering 
iithe of its graceful proportion, lifting its form in aerial perspec- 
tive against the soft blue sky of this sunny land, you will not won- 
der that it has been termed the miracle of Moorish art. Ascend 
it, and then you will enjoy the most gorgeous panorama to be 
beheld in Spain. Fair Seville lies proudly at its feet, reviving 
the memory of its past glories and splendid history. You look 
down from the belfry upon the green foliage of the Court of 



280 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

Oranges, and the light waters of the golden fountains gleam 
tinder the eye like brilliant diamonds sparkling in the sun. In 
that court the true and devout Moslem once washed his hands 
and feet, as he listened to the call of the mueddin above, who 
entoned the hour for prayer, and chanted the appel to the 
faithful. The gorgeous mass of the Cathedral roof glows with 
all the brillancy of its Azalejo tiles mid-way up the tower, 
while the eye embraces at one glance, all the turrets that sur- 
mount the circuit of the ancient walls. Afar the swift waters 
of the Guadalquivir glide in its onward course to the ocean, 
where you scarcely distinguish the forms of the tiny boats, that 
are freighted with the rich products of its native soil. Other 
Moorish minarets surround the grand central mueddin tower of 
" La Giralda." 

The only vestiges of the original mosque now visible, are 
some Saracenic gates and porches, and the square buttresses of 
the outer walls. Above the whole rises the majestic tower of 
the vast Gothic Cathedral, certainly the finest in Spain, if not 
in Europe ; inferior to none, not even that of Strasburg, whether 
we consider the massiveness of its construction, or its sublime 
effects. Below the spectator, and in front of the Giralda, the 
rambling structure of the archbishop's palace reminds you of 
its occupation by Soult, during the Peninsular war. 

Here Soult resided, when the walls were adorned with his 
precious collection of Spanish pictures ; fortunately he could not 
"remove" the Giralda. It was on the plaza, opposite, that the 
cloaked Spaniards watched those of their Afrancesado country- 
men, who frequented the foreigner's councils and feats, and des- 
tined them to the knife-stab. Some French officers one day 
were admiring the Giralda, when a majo replied, " y con todo 
eso, no se hizo en Paris," and yet it was not made at Paris. 



THE SHOP OF FIGARO. 281 

On one side of the square of the Duke, the Chirruguesque 
features of the Longa, or Exchange, claim attention, while not 
far off, the Alcazar yields an interest, from its occupation by 
Montpensier, the fortunate consort of the sister of Isabel. 
The entire square, which hangs around the nucleus of the ca- 
thedrals, embraces every variety of architectural beauty, so 
that in their several styles you can easily trace out the rise 
and decline of the Saracenic, and Gothic, and Spanish con- 
quests. On all sides you are struck with the greatness of the 
edifices, and the singular contrast of their orders, while the mot- 
ley groups of the people, who are moving above the Plaza, in the 
courts, and over the pavements, into these different buildings, 
attract no less by the novelty, picturesqueness, and cut of their 
party-colored costumes. Even the harlequin dress of Figaro — ■ 
the Barber of Seville, in the opera is easily restored at one 
corner of the quadrangle, (No. 15 San Tomas,) where the iden- 
tical shop of this musical character may be seen, and where 
you may still be shaved by a descendant of this hero, under the 
sign of the basin, the yelmo de manbrino, which Don Quixote 
took for his helmet, when he first set out on his chivalrous 
adventures after knight-errantry. We were tonsored and 
lathered in this shop, merely for the sake of the associations 
connected with the memory of Figaro, and everybody who has 
music in his soul, should be shaved there also. Such are some 
of the wonderful, of the beautiful landscapes obtained from the 
belfry of the most graceful Giralda. 

When satisfied with the loveliness of this superb landskip, 
descend to the street, and passing thence enter the interior of 
the Cathedral. 



282 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 



THE CATHEDRAL. 

The Cathedral itself is the largest and finest in Spain : the 
solemn and grandiose of " Grandeza" is its distinctive quality, 
as elegance is of Leon, strength of Santiago, and wealth was 
of Toledo. The site is that of the successive temples of Astarte, 
Salambo, and Mahomet. The original mosque, on whose pecu- 
liar quadrilateral form, 398 feet east to west, by 291 north to 
south, it is built, it was erected by Abu Yusuf Jacob- Al-Mansur, 
11 63-1 178, and remained uninjured until 1480, when it was 
pulled down, and this cathedral commenced, which was opened 
for divine service in 1519. The chapter in their first conference 
determined to " construct a church such and so good that it 
never should have its equal. Let posterity, when it admires it 
complete, say, that those who dared to devise such a work must 
have been mad." There* was method in such madness. 

The name of the architect is not known. It is inside and 
outside a museum of fine art, in spite of hostile and recent 
church spoliations. It preserves the Basilica form of the 
original mosque, being an oblong square ; it is 431 feet long by 
315 feet wide ; has seven aisles — the two lateral are railed 
off into chapels ; the centre nave is magnificent, the height 
amazing, being 145 feet, while at the cimborio, or transept 
dome, it is 171 feet; the offices connected with the cathedral 
and chapter are built outside to the south ; the pavement in 
black and white chequered marble is superb. It was finished 
in 1793, and cost the enormous sum of 155,304 dollars. It 
was restored at one corner. 

Within a "dim religious light," so suitable to the house of 
prayer, pervaded the aisles of this noble temple, creating an 



PRISMATIC BEAUTY. 283 



atmosphere of holier inspiration than that enjoyed outside. 
A rich stream of aerial rays, flowing like a veil of mist from the 
loftiest oriel in the north transept, flooded the pavement, where 
it fell into repose. Were the angels painters, they would have 
chosen it as a type on their descent in Jacob's Dream, for 
spiritual beings treat of the heavenly with no material aids 
like ladders. No less beautiful is the effect of those delicately 
subdued gushes of color that poured through diaphanous panes 
of the stained glass in the windows of the chapels, where, 
while you watch the shadows that flit across the pillars and 
over the shrines, catching at times glimpses of eprismatic fleet- 
ness, joining in consort with glistening jewels which crown the 
images and the reliques, the sanctuary is touched, as it were, 
with the magic pencil of an archangel, and transferred in 
fancy (at least) from the creation of man into a revelation 
of celestial glory. 

We loved to dwell among the hallowed precincts of these 
gorgeous chapels, so replete with images of saintliness, and 
associations with saintly devotees. Each chapel had its per- 
tinent story of devotion, and each shrine was gladdened by 
some peculiar hue of beauty, or treasure-picture from the 
middle age of art. The painted windows, depicting the miracle 
of some holy man, or illustrating the Parables of our Lord, 
were but the types of multiplied refractions of the first blessed 
gift of creation — light, separated, and missioned on an errand 
of benevolence to adorn those shrines in an endless variety of 
colors. Like the Iris-messenger from the skies, freighted with 
the wealth of the sunset, its rainbow tints spanned the arches 
df the temple, and wreathing their lustrals round the columns 
of the tabernacle, fostered promises of joy to the heart, and 
grace to the soul of their worshipers. 



284 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

" *T is on such gems of thought where Fancy reigns supreme, m 
Opinion weaves her fabrics in each golden dream ; 
And Foster' d with hopes of heaven Imagination loves 
To wing its joys, afar it only lives above." 

Now look aloft, and your eyes wander down avenues of 
golden columns, which are joined together and crossed by the 
groined roof and tendrils of fretted lacery of sculptured stone- 
work. Sweet tones of melodious music steal over vaulted ceil- 
ing, and, swelling with fainter echoes as they depart from the 
coro, are borne from chapel to shrine in gentle undulations, 
until they die away among the distant and deep recesses of the 
anti-transept. Around the walls the masterpieces of Murillo 
and Cano are suspended or let into the walls, thus adding 
the charms of painting to the attractions of architecture and 
music. 

Amid the multitude of these brilliant effects, and beyond 
the grandeur of a scene where the bridal of the sun and 
moonlight seem celebrated in the union, contrasted with com- 
mingled lights and shades, the pageant of the earth, is no 
less attractive than the thoughts of heaven. Humble wor- 
shipers kneel before the shrines of saints, while peasants tell 
their sins at the confessional, the priests officiate at the altars 
and chapel of the Sacraments, the music of the loud pealing 
organ sounds on high above the chants and anthems of the 
choristers, in the solemn and grand oratory of the Omnipo- 
tent, where costume, and ceremonious priests, canticles, music, 
prayers, painting, sculpture, reliques, architecture, worship, 
pageant and pomp unite to captivate the heart, fascinate the 
eye, and please the religious. 

The Cathedral of Seville is truly a gorgeous spectacle of 
itself; it is probably the superlative in architectural degrees. 



GORGEOUS INTERIOR .PAGEANT. 285 

You cannot avoid being touched by the genius of inspiration, 
which fills the mind in such a place. The heart swells while 
inspecting its wonders ; you wonder at the thought of the giant 
men who were its architects ; you wish to recall the age in 
which so grand a prodigy of art and labor was produced. But 
the restoration of its founders, and their period of middle-age 
glories is as vain as the search after the name of the unknown 
architect of the Giralda. You reflect again, it recurs to you 
that it is the Temple of the living God, designed by man in 
gratitude for his goodness, and in praise of His wonderful 
works. In the midst of your meditation you kneel as one of 
the worshipers, you become conscious of a want of pardon for 
your sins, the soul is filled with the sentiment of true religious 
feeling, and, regardless of form, ceremony or creed, the prayers 
of that hour are Catholic, because spontaneous. 

Far more gorgeous was the aspect of the interior on the 
15th of August, when the temple was filled with multitudes, 
eager to witness the ceremonies which were to be celebrated on 
the Feast of the Yirgin, and in honor of Saint Ferdinand. 
The procession moved from the church about eight o'clock in 
the morning. The whole church was brilliant under the in- 
creased lights of a myriad of tapers, to which were added the 
effect of the daylight through the windows. All the windows 
and the galleries of the houses adjacent to the cathedral were 
filled with the faces of their inmates, anxiously observing the 
pomp and circumstance of the passing pageant, as the crowds 
of followers moved round the square outside the edifice. Burn- 
ing and bright Spanish eyes sparkled with animation, as their 
joyous faces shone with gladness and approbation, while the 
inhabitants were intensely gazing on the scene : add to the 
glory of this occasion, the beautiful blue sky which was overhead, 



286 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

tlie rich colors of the numerous gala-costume of the people, the 
tramp of the cavalcade, the high sound of martial music and 
the gleam of arms borne by the soldiers in their ranks, while 
the standards of Spanish colors flaunted in the breeze, and the 
huzzas of the crowd mingling with the pealing of the merry 
bells, when the pageant was in its height, at the moment that 
the image of Saint Ferdinand was borne on high, under a 
panoply of rich silk and curtains, and the whole presents a 
spectacle that can only be found in Spain, and nowhere else so 
magnificent and grand as in the city of Seville. But with all 
this ceremony and parade, we failed to observe any pretty 
women in the crowd. 

The cathedral should be visited at different times of the day 
and evening, in order to fully estimate the artificial changes and 
effects of light and shade. The interior is somewhat dark; but 
it is a gorgeous gloom, inspiring a religious sentiment — chasten- 
ing, not chilling — solemn, not sad. The sun, about two o'clock, 
falls on the Holy Rood, over the Retablo, and produces a 
splendid effect. The cathedral is always thronged, not only by 
the devout, but by idlers, sinners and beggars. The sexes are 
not allowed to walk about or talk together ; celadores and 
pertigueros, beadles and vergers, keep guard, and papal excom- 
munications are suspended in terrorem; nor are women allowed 
to enter after oraciones, when darkness comes on, and the pre- 
text of "going to church" favors love meetings, etc. 

THE ALCAZAR. 

Before entering the royal Alcazar — al-Kasr — the house of 
Csesar, the delicate arabesques, the pillar-divided windows 
ajimezes, and the carved soffit of its Moorish portal, are worthy 



ALCAZAR GENUINE MOORISH. 28 T 

of regard. Its quaint Gothic inscription almost looks like 
Cufic ; it runs thus : " El muy poderoso, y conquistador 
Don Pedro, por la gracia de Dios, rey de Castilla y de 
Leon, niando facet, estos alcazares y estas facadas que fue 
hecho en la era mil quatro cientos y dos f that, A. D., 1364. 
It was rebuilt in the tenth and eleventh centuries, by Jalubi, a 
Toledan architect, for Prince Abclu-r-rahman Anna'ssir Sidin 
Allah (the defender of the religion of God), and occupies the 
site of the residence of the Roman Praetor. 

It has been much altered by Ferdinand and Isabella, and 
Charles V., Frenchified by Philip Y., who sub-divided the noble 
saloons with paltry laths and plaster tabique. Isabella erected 
the pretty chapel up stairs. Charles Y., was here married to 
Isabella of Portugal, and being of chilly habits, put up the 
fire-places on the second floor. Phillip Y., resided here too 
in morbid seclusion for two years amusing himself with religious 
penances, and fishing in the pond. This Alcazar was barbarously 
whitewashed in 1813, when most of the delicate painting and 
gilding was obliterated as at the Alhambra in 1832, but some 
partial restorations of portions to their primitive brilliancy have 
since been made. 

On entering, the columns in the vestibule are Roman, with 
Gothic capitals ; these belong to the original palace. The 
grand court is superb, seventy feet by fifty-four. Many of the 
doors, ceilings, and Azulejos are genuine Moorish ; the oldest 
portion fronts the garden. The hall of the Ambassadors has 
a glorious Media naranja roof; but the Spanish balconies 
and royal portraits mar the Moorish character ; the baboon 
Bourbon heads are both an insult and an injury. Here 
the silly Seville Junta sat until the defeat of Ocafia. In 
the next room it is said that Don Pedro caused his brother, 



288 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

El Maestro de Santiago, whom he invited as a guest, to be 
murdered. 

A truly Arabian suite of rooms fronting the garden, leads 
to the second story modernized by Charles Y.; walking on 
the terrace over the garden you arrive at the Chapel of Isabel, 
which is covered with cinco-cento Azulejo, so Peruginesque in 
its way as to be considered the finest specimen of this mate- 
rial in Spain. 

Passing along the corridor you are led to the Cuarto del 
Principe, or " chamber of the Prince," a truly alhambra room 
placed over the vestibule. In a long saloon down stairs were 
kept, or rather were neglected, in heaps on the floor, those 
antiquities which chance discovered while a road was making 
at Italica, and which were not reburied from the fact that the 
Alcalde Bruna was a man of taste. Soult made the Alcazar 
a general receiving house for stolen goods, and when he fled 
from Seville, after the Duke's defeat of Marment at Salamanca, 
more than 15,000 pictures were left behind in his hurry. 

The conquecento gardens laid out by Charles, are perhaps 
the most curious in Europe. The tank where Philip Y., fished, 
and the vaulted Bafios (baths) where Marie de Padilla, mis- 
tress of Pedro el Cruel, bathed, were probably, originally pri- 
sons. The gardens are those of a Hesperus "not fabulous," 
their levels vary, and the plots are divided by orange-clad 
walls; the balmy air is perfumed by blossoms and golden fruit. 
Quaint patterns of eagles and coats of arms are curiously cut 
in the box and myrtle which mark the different compartments 
whilst hidden fountains in the walks often surprise the unwary 
stranger as he passes from the side of the semi-Moorish 
azulejo-adorned Kiosk in the under garden to the rustic ter- 
race in the north. 



PRETTY INTERIOR COURTS. 289 



REMARKABLE HOUSES. 

There are still some remains of Moorish architecture in the 
houses of certain of the Sevillians. These are usually built in 
a hollow square around an area or court, in the middle of which 
a fountain plays, and occasionally the eye is refreshed by the 
sight of a small flower garden. The entrance into them is 
effected by a double portal in front, the innermost being guard- 
ed by a grating of iron open work, which permits the inhabi- 
tant of the house to see what is passing in the street before the 
door, while it allows the pedestrian to catch a glimpse of 
a pretty interior as he saunters along, and often, perhaps, to 
catch a sight of these neat little cupboards so orderly kept 
within the corners of the court, and of a pretty housemaid, as 
she steps on tiptoe to lodge her charge of tiny porcelain upon 
the shelves of the china receptory. From the similarity of the 
plan of these dwellings it is easy to perceive that they were 
the same as those of the Romans and the Moors. At evening 
you may often look in upon these courts, now rendered cheerful 
Ijj the light of the burning taper, and see the members of a 
Bevillian family, sitting round the centre table busily engaged in 
reading, conversation, or at work. Or, at noon, the host may 
be seen reclining on his couch while taking his siesta, under a 
wide awning that protects the entire area from the hot sun of 
the meridian. 

The Casa O'Lea is one of the most remarkable houses in 
Seville. It is a perfect Moorish specimen. The most Moorish 
palace of the Duke of Alba, is now, alas ! going to ruins. 
Here Lord Holland lived. It consisted of more than eleven 
courts with nine fountains, and more than one hundred pillars. 

13 



290 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 



Its gardens, forests, trees and myrtle groves were truly refresh- 
ing and luxurious. 

Those who have read of the charming drama of Sancho 
Ortez de Poelas, will be pleased with the Mansion of the 
Taberas, in the " street of the old Inquisition." Here is still 
shown the garden door by which the Sancho el Bravo intended 
to carry off the beautiful Estrella de Sevilla. This house, when 
tenanted by a Frenchman in 1833, was converted into a dyeing 
factory ; and when last heard from he was trimming up the gar- 
den a la mode de Paris. The palace of Pilate, so called from its 
imitation of the house of Pilate at Jerusalem, was built in 1533 
by a great nobleman of the day — Enriquez de Pibera, in com- 
memoration of his having performed a pilgrimage to the holy 
sepulchre. The architecture proves how closely the Spaniards 
of the fifteenth century imitated the Saracenic forms. All is 
now in a scandalous state of neglect. The saloons are white- 
washed and used for drying clothes ; the gardens are running 
wild ; the sculpture is tossed about as in a stone-mason's yard. 
The noble Gothic balustrade over the entrance, the grand court 
yard with its fountains and injured' Poman statues of Pallas, 
Ceres, and others, are worthy of careful observation. Ascend- 
ing its magnificent staircase look at the chief suite of rooms 
where everything that stucco, carving azulejo and gilding could 
do, was done. Walk then into the pleasant gardens that still 
remain in all the vivid beauty of nature, and mournfully reflect 
over the marbles and sculpture cast like rubbish amid the 
weeds. 

The lovers of quaint and crazy bits "of architecture," will 
find a labyrinth of lanes in the Jews' quarter. Before their 
expulsion from Seville they were apart from the Moriscos. In 
the Judc-rei, the house once inhabited by Murillo, close to the 



JUMBLE OF LANES AND STREETS. 291 

city wall, gives an interest to Jewry, which was never so agree- 
able as in the associations connected with this celebrated pain- 
ter. The parish church, La Santa Cruz, in which he was 
buried, was pulled down by the French, who scattered his bones. 
Murillo w r as baptized in the Magdalena — that church, also, 
Soult destroyed. His tomb consisted of a plain slab, placed 
before the Descent from the Cross of Campana, with a skeleton 
engraved on it, and the motto, " Yive Moriturus." His paint- 
room, na^, his living room, for he lived to paint, w r as on the 
upper floor, and is as cheerful as his works. In the garden, the 
fountain, and Italian frescoes, compositions of fawns, mermaids, 
and women, with musical instruments, are admired. They have 
been attributed by some to Murillo, whose they certainly are 
not, and by others to Lopez de Yargas, which is more probable. 
This house was lately inhabited by Canon Cepero, who did so 
much to rescue art at Seville, during the recent constitutional 
outbreaks. He was a man of taste, and has, or had, a collec- 
tion of many and bad pictures. His fault was not entirely his 
own, for where good ones are not to be procured, which is " the 
great fact " of Seville, the bad are the best. 

One house in Seville, the Calk Santiago — named after the 
Patron Saint of Spain, deserves to be visited for fun's sake. It 
is a barrack of washerwomen — what a scene for the artist ! 
What costume, balconies, draperies, color, attitude, grouping ! 
What a carrying of vases, after the antique ; what a clatter of 
female tongues, a barking of dogs, a squalling of children — all 
living Murillos — will assail the impertinente curioso. 



292 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 



QUARTERS, OR WARDS. 

" Desde la Catedral, a la Magdalena, 
Se almuerza, se come, y se cena ; 
Desde la Magdalena, a San Vicente, 
Se come solamente ; 
Desde San Vicente, a la Macarena, 
JVi se almuerza, ni se come, ni se cena" 

(i From the Cathedral to the Magdalen, 

They breakfast, they dine, and they sup. 

From the Magdalen to Saint Vincent again, 
They only dine, and then get up. 

But from Saint Vincent to the Macaren, 
They never break their fast nor sup." 

The different quarters, into which Seville is divided, are well 
expressed in the above verses, and the translation. 

The once wealthy clergy gathered like young pelicans under 
the wing of the mother church. The best houses were near 
the cathedral, in the Calle de los Abades. This Abbot's street 
was their "" close f here, "their bellies with good capons 
lined," the dignitaries breakfasted, dined and supped; recently 
they were half starving. In the San Vicente lived the knights 
and nobles, and the Calle de Armas was the aristocratic 
street of arms. Here the hidalgos, with their wives and 
daughters, ate less and dressed more ; they only dined; they 
pinched their stomachs to deck their backs : but the most an- 
cient unchanged Iberian characteristic, from Athenaeus to Laz- 
arallo de Tormes, has been external show and internal want. 
The Macarena now, as it always was, is the abode of ragged 
poverty, which never could, or can for a certainty reckon on 
one or any meal a day. 



PROLIFIC CLERGY. 293 



The Calk de los Abades should be visited, although no longer 
so redolent of rich ollas. The cathedral staff consisted of an 
archbishop, an auxiliary bishop, eleven dignitaries, forty canons, 
twenty prebendaries, twenty minor canons, twenty vienteneros, 
and twenty chaplains of the quire. Their emoluments were 
very great ; nearly 900 houses in Seville belonged to the chap- 
ter, besides vast estates, tithes, and corn rents. Menclizabal, in 
1836, appropriated all this to the State ; since then the number 
of canons has been reduced, and their incomes still more, and 
even those not paid : formerly this street was a rookery, nor 
were their nests without progeny. In the mediaeval period the 
concubines of the celibate clergy were almost licensed, as among 
the Moors. The mistress was called barragana, from the 
Arabic words barra, strange, and gana ganidir, a connexion : 
hence, in old Spanish, natural children are called hijos de 
ganancia, which has nothing to do with gain ; analogous is the 
" strange woman" in Judges xi. 2 ; others, and probably more 
correctly, have derived the word from the Arabic JBarragan, 
single, unmarried ; which was essential to secure to the parties 
tfius cohabiting without marriage, the sort of morganatic status 
allowed by the law. Many were the jests as regards the 
children born in this street : — 

" En la calle de los Abades, 
Todos hart Tios, y ningunos Padres." 

They called their father their wide, and he called his children 

nephews. 

" Los Canonijos Madre ) no tiencn hijos ; 
Los que tienen en casa, son sobrinicos." 

The wealth and comparative luxury of the Spanish clergy 



294 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

exposed them to popular envy and plunder : pious innovators 
were urged by the auri sacra fames ; and certainly the church 
had so well feathered its nest ; that Death met with no ruder 
welcome than when he tapped at a good dignitary's door, who 
was contented with his sublunary lot, his house, housekeeper, good 
cook, and income paid quarterly, and pair of sleek mules ; the 
canon, or Regla de Santiago, was thus laid down : — 

El Primer o — es amar a Don Diner o. 
El segnndo — es amolar a todo el mundo. 
El tercero — ouen vaca y carnero. 
El cuarto — ayunar despues de harto. 
El quinto — buen bianco y Unto. 
Y est os cinco, se encierran en dos, 
Todo para mi, y nada para vos. 

The first is — to love the Lord Money. 

The second is — to grind all the world. 

The third is — good beef and mutton. 

The fourth is — to fast when one can eat no more. 

The fifth is — good wine — white and red. 
And these five rules may be summed up in two — 
Everything for me and nothing for you. 

The great square of Seville was long called de San Francisco, 
from the neighboring and now destroyed convent. It was for 
its cloisters that Murillo painted, in 1645, that series of eleven 
superb pictures which first made his talents known in Seville, 
after his return from Madrid. All these were removed by force 
of arms by Soult, save one, which he left behind in his hurry, 
in the Alcazar, and which is now in the London collection, 
purchased and paid for. 

The Plaza is the heart of the city — the forum, the place of 
gossip and of executions. It is very Moorish and picturesque, 



CHOICE PICTURES. 295 



with its arcades and balconies; under the former are the jewel- 
er's shops. 

MURILLOS. 

The finest pictures in Seville are in the Cathedral, La 
Caridad, the Museo, and the University. La Caridad, or 
alms-house for poor old men, lies outside the walls, near the 
river, and is a hospital dedicated to St. George, and rebuilt by 
Miguel Mafiana, a friend of MurihVs. On entering the church, 
the carved and painted Descent from the Cross over the high 
altar is the masterpiece of the Pedro Roldan. Under the coro 
the " Triumph of Time" and a "Dead Prelate," by J. Valdes 
Leal. The latter is a disgusting picture, which Muriilo said he 
could not look at without holding his nose. Here he painted, 
in 1660-H, that series of grand pictures, of which Soult — 
hence called by Torreno the modern Yerres — carried off five: 
with the Santa Isabel he bribed Buonaparte, keeping four, viz: 
" the Angels and Abraham," " the Prodigal Son," " the Heal- 
ing the Cripple," and " the Angel and St. Peter," which his 
" Grace " had at Paris, being open to a good offer. The 
Spaniards have never filled up the blank spaces; the gaps 
yawn like graves, and this hiatus mazime defiendus remains as an 
evidence of French love for the fine arts and the eighth com- 
mandment. 

The Murillos now in the Caridad are an "Infant Saviour" on 
panel, and injured; a "St. John," rich and brown; a "San 
Juan de Dios," equal to Rembrandt; the Pan y Feces, or 
Loaves and Fishes; but the figure of Christ, feeding the Five 
Thousand, which ought to be the principal, is here subordinate: 
the "Moses striking the Rock" is much finer; this, indeed, is a 



296 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

representation of the Hagar-like thirst of the desert, and is 
justly called La Sed : both pictures are colossal, and painted 
in a sketchy manner, calculated for the height and distance of 
their position from the spectator, which, however, is incon- 
veniently high and distant; but here they still hang like rich 
oranges on the bough where they originally budded. 

At Seville Bartolme Esteban Murillo is to be seen in all his 
glory, and a giant, like Antseus, on his native soil. His finest 
pictures, painted for the Capuchinos, were sent off, in 1810, to 
Cadiz, and thus escaped from the " Commissioner." Murillo, 
born at Seville, and baptized Januaay 1, 1618, where he died, 
April 3, 1682, was the painter of female and infantine grace, 
as Velazquez was of more masculine and intellectual subjects. 
Both were true alike in form and color to Spanish nature — 
both were genuine, national, and idiosyncratic. Murillo had 
three styles : the Frio, his earliest, being based on Ribera and 
Caravaggio, was dark, with a decided outline. Of these were 
the pictures in San Francisco. His second manner was his 
calido, or warm, when his coloring was improved, while his out- 
line was still well denned and marked. His third style was the 
Vapor oso, or misty, vaporous, and blending. This he adopted 
partly because Herrera el Mozo had made it the fashion, and 
partly because, being stinted for time from the increased orders, 
he could not finish so highly. Thus, to get more quickly over 
his work, he sacrificed a somewhat of his previous conscien- 
tious drawing. 

MUSEUM. 

The Museo of Seville, which is by far the first provincial one 
in Spain, is the creation of accident and individuals. Among 



ZURBARAN AND MURILLO. 297 

the finest pictures observe the Apotheosis of Thomas" Aquinas, 
the master-piece of Francisco Zurbaran, and painted in 1625; 
"removed" to Paris by Soult, it was recovered by Wellington 
at Waterloo; the Head of Santo Domingo is the portrait of 
Don Augustin de Escobar; the drapery, velvet, armor, etc., 
offer a blaze of splendor combined with much more stuff and 
substance than in the ornamental brocades of P. Veronese : 
Zurbaran is called the Spanish Caravaggio, but he is much 
more Titian esque, more elevated in mind and manner. Among 
the other Zurbarans observe " San Henrique de Sufon" and 
" San Luis Bertran," and the " Padre Eterno;" also the three 
first-rate pictures from the Cartuja — " San Bruno before Urban 
II.," " the Virgin protecting the Monks," and " San Hugo in 
the Refectory:" although unfortunately injured by over-clean- 
ing, they are magnificent. Xo one ever painted fleecy-hosiery 
Carthusian monks like Zurbaran; he was, however, apt to draw 
too much from lay figures, which gives a hard outline. The 
studier of style will notice the peculiar pinky tone of this 
master, especially in female cheeks: they seem fed on roses, as 
-was said of Parrhasius and Baroccio; but the prevalent use 
of rouge at that time influenced his eye, as it did that of 
Velazquez. 

The Murillos are placed in the Sala de Murillo, like gems in 
a diadem. The finest came from the Capuchin convent, for 
which they were painted at his best period. Although the 
light is better than that of their original positions, yet they lose 
something by the change, as Murillo, in designing them, cal- 
culated exactly for each locality, and painted up to the actual 
light and point of view ; and we miss the Capuchino cicerone, 
who seemed to have stepped out of one of the pictures to tell us 
where Murillo went for a model, and how true was his portrait ; 

13* 



293 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

the Santo Tomas de Villa nueva was called by the painter sw 
cuadro, his own picture. The beggars are beyond price : none 
could represent them and Franciscans like Murillo, and simply 
because he painted them the most, and only what he saw 
actually in the Macarena and at every convent gate, as all who 
remember them will admit. His was a faithful transcript of 
Spanish mendicant and monastic nature, neither more nor less. 
The San Felix de Cantalicio is the perfection of the vapor oso : 
the delicate young flesh of the child, the Corregiesque morbi- 
dezza, contrasts with the greys of the saint. This, say the 
Spaniards, is painted con leche y sangre, or with milk and blood. 
The Santas Justa y Rufina is in his calido style, forcible, and 
yet tender. " The Nativity f " The Adoration of Shepherds f 
San Leandro and San Buenaventura— robserve the peeping boy 
like Correggio, not that Murillo ever studied from him, he 
looked rather to the children of Roelas. San Jose; San Juan 
con el tordero ; "The Yirgin and Child," called La Serviletta, 
because said to have been painted on a dinner-napkin ; the 
child almost struggles out of his mother's arms, and out of the 
picture-frame. " St. Francis embracing the Crucified Saviour :" 
here is seen Murillo's great power of drawing. "The Yirgin 
and Angels with the Dead Christ f " The Annunciation." The 
San Antonio is a finer picture than that in the cathedral ; 
observe the monks expression looking on the child that is seated 
on his book : San Felix, half-length. All these came from the 
Capuchinos. There is also an early Murillo, a "Yirgin and 
Child/' from San Jose, and two of San Agustin. The rest of 
the collection, some hundred pictures, are by different artists, 
and of different degrees of merit. The above selected are 
the pearls of greatest price. At last, not least, observe La 
Concepcion by Murillo, once a gem of the Capuchin convent. 



CORTEGE AND CANDLES. 299 

There is another of this popular Seville subject, but not so fine ; 
Murillo, from his excellence in painting this " mystery," was 
called el pintor de las concepciones. 

I M MACULATE CONCEPTION. 

The dogma is that the Virgin was born free from all taint 
of original sin. In 1613, a Dominican monk of Seville having 
contended that the Deipara was liable to the pains and penal- 
ties of original sin, their rival mendicants, the Franciscans, 
affirmed that she was exempt, whereupon the whole population, 
with the sinless Mary, set upon a sort of standard, called a sin 
Picado, surmounted by a cross, paraded the city singing praises 
to the Immaculate Conception, and the hymns of the rosary. 

They still take place during the holy week and the winter 
season, and are very picturesque. At nightfall the long lines 
of men, women, and children, two and two, are seen twinkling 
through the narrow streets ; the procession is headed by devo- 
tees, who carry richly chased lamps on staves. The parish 
priest follows, bearing the glittering banner of gold and velvet ; 
as soon as the cortege passes by, the candles in the balconies 
are put out : thus, while all before was one glare of light, all 
behind is dark, and it seems as if the banner of the Virgin cast 
glory and effulgence before her, like the fire-pillar which pre- 
ceded the Israelites in the desert. 

Formerly no one entered a house or company without giving 
the watchword of Seville, Ave Maria purisima, to which the 
inmates responded by the countersign sin pecado concebida : now 
the first portion is generally the indication of a visit from a 
mendicant. 

Seville having taken the lead in the dispute, it is natural 



300 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

that some of the most perfect conceptions of Murillo and Alonzo 
Cano should have been devoted to the embodying this incor- 
poreal mystery ; and never has dignified composure and inno- 
cence of mind, unruffled by human guilt or passion, pure un- 
sexual unconsciousness of sin or shame, heavenly beatitude past 
utterance, or the unconquerable majesty and " hidden strength 
of chastity," 7 been more exquisitely portrayed. She appears in 
a state of extatic beatitude, and borne aloft in a golden aether 
to heaven, to which her beauteous eyes are turned, by a group 
of angels, which none could color like him. The retiring virgin 
loveliness of the blessed Mary seems to have stolen so gently, 
so silently on her, that she is unaware of her own power and 
fascination. The Inquisition required the Yirgin to be painted 
as about . fifteen years old, very beautiful, with those regular 
features which the Greek artists selected to express the perfect 
passionless serenity of the immortal gods, devoid of human 
frailties, "the unpolluted temple of the mind;" that her atti- 
tude should be — 

" Her graceful arms in meekness bending 
Across her gently budding breast " — 

that she should be clad in a spotless robe of blue and white — 
because she appeared in those colors to Beatriz de Silva. She 
should bruise with her heel the serpent's head ; thus trampling 
on the author of original sin. She should stand on a moon in a 
crescent shape, and encircled with stars, because she is the 
" woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, 
and upon her head a crown of twelve stars." (Rev. xii. 1.) 
She is often surrounded with smaller pictures, which represent 
her different attributes ; the draperies of the Yirgin must be 
very long, and her feet never shown. 



MANUFACTURE OF TOBACCO. 301 

The mystery of the incarnation is shadowed out in the armo- 
rial bearings of the Virgin, the vase with lily-branches, jarro con 
agucenas, which is to be seen sculptured in Spanish cathedrals, 
most of which are dedicated to her, and not to the Father or 
Son. In the middle ages an idea was prevalent that any 
female who ate the lily would become pregnant : Lucina sine 
concubitu. 

RAMBLE ABOUT TOWN. 

While we were at Seville we remained at the Hotel of 
Europe, enjoying the society of two agreeable English officers, 
whose company we afterwards engaged in a ride over the moun- 
tains to Gibraltar. One day, after a pleasant dinner at this 
inn, which was built after the common style of the houses in 
Seville, having a central court-yard and fountain ornamented 
with a garden, we strolled about the city, and taking the direc- 
tion of the gate of Saint Ferdinand, accidentally fell in with 
the whole gang of the cigar girls who were returning after the 
labors of the day, from the grand manufactory of tobacco, situ- 
ated in this quarter. This establishment employs over 5,000 
females ; and we were obliged to face the whole number of this 
formidable body of work-women, a task from which a modest 
man like ourselves would naturally shrink. We should have 
been better sustained under the emergency, had there been a 
pretty face among the innumerable number of black, piercing 
eyes arrayed against us. Where beauty fails, and one has no 
knowledge of the gentler sex, excepting from a passing obser- 
vation, it is impossible to awaken any further interest in them, 
than that which would be excited by the contemplation of any 
other object of pleasurable emotion. 



302 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

In spite of our early dreams of dark, lustrous Spanish eyes, 
we confess we were disappointed with the style of the Andalu- 
cian beauties. They possess grace without doubt, as we well 
know, for we had an opportunity to admire it even in the winning 
manners and personal naivete of our washerwoman's daughter 
at the hotel. Notwithstanding the renommee of the Spanish 
ladies, and their world-spread reputation, they did not satisfy 
our idea of the beautiful. They certainly had noble gaits, and 
the chief attraction lay in the expression of their eyes. They 
always appeared to us like children of nature, but lacking in 
education and refinement. If I made an exception it would be 
in favor of the Duchess of Montpensier, who is a perfect little 
beauty; and if all the Andalucian ladies were like her, what 
fascinating and enchanting creatures they would be ! I was 
particularly fortunate when seeing her alight from her carriage 
to enter the gates of her palace ; and while I stood watching, 
as she vanished behind the door of the Alcazar, I thought, 
" What a lucky fellow was the Duke /" Continuing our walk 
quite late in the afternoon, as proper Tauromachian travelers, 
went out to Tablada to see the ganado, or what cattle the bulls 
were, which were to figure in the next sport of the arena ; and 
on the ground we found all the fancy men or bull jockeys, can- 
vassing the merits of the different animals previous to making 
their bets on the quality of the blood. As connoisseurs we 
wagered in preference to the breed of the Jarama, but were 
better pleased on our return home from the bull-farm, while 
enjoying the glorious view of the distant city, as the sunset was 
gilding its towers and pinnacles with gold. Passing round by 
another path from that by which we had sallied out, we struck 
into the walks of the old Alemeda, and then crossing over to 
that side of the Guadalquivir, where the tower of gold sur- 



BULL-FIGHT AT SEVILLE. 303 

mounts its bank, rested awhile under the shades of the garden 
groves that line the approach to the Gate of Xeres, by which 
we re-entered the city. 

PLAZA DE TOROS. 

Tauroinachian travelers will remember the day before the 
fight to ride out to Tablada to see the ganado, or what cattle 
the bulls are, and go early the next day to witness the encierro ; 
be sure also at the show to secure a boletin de sowbra in a bal- 
con de yiedra, i. e., a good seat in the shade. 

The preparations being complete, all eyes are turned to the 
passage through which the bull is to enter. He has been for 
about twelve hours shut up in total darkness, with heavy 
weights upon his neck, the loose parts of his skin about the neck 
gathered up in folds, perforated, and tied with red ribbon. He 
is inflamed to madness by these tortures, and the moment he is 
liberated he rushes into the arena with the fury of a wild beast. 
He comes on so rapidly that he passes by the picadors and chu- 
los drawn up on either side, without noticing them. He 
advances to the centre of the arena, glaring with his bloodshot 
eyes upon the circle of spectators who hem him in on every 
side, and is rendered still more furious by the glare of light 
which suddenly bursts upon him. He is a noble animal ; his 
limbs are symmetrical and clean, his body light, his neck and 
shoulders broad and obviously of immense strength, his head 
beautifully shaped, and his horns long and curved. The pica- 
dors now begin to move from their stations, following the sides 
of the arena, and passing round so as to meet him in front. 
The moment he discovers his enemy, he dashes at him. He 
waits for no assault. The picador whom he has singled out has 



304 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

but just time to turn his horse's head a little outward, and to 
draw him up near one of the passages, when the bull attacks 
him. On he bounds at full speed, until he is within reach, 
when he throws his whole strength into a single impulse, and 
dashes his horns into the horse's flank. He has received the 
picador's spear in his shoulder, but it has not even checked him. 
With his horns plunged deep into the horse's side, he raises him 
and his rider clear off the ground, and pitches them both against 
the wooden breastwork of the arena. They come together to 
the earth. The horse regains his feet, horribly lacerated, and 
the rider is instantly upon his back again. The poor animal's 
pain lends him strength for a moment, and he flies across the 
arena, in spite of the efforts of his rider, dragging his entrails 
upon the ground, and trampling on them with his hind feet. 
The instant the bull has overturned his antagonist, one of the 
chulos advances, unfurling a red scarf and flourishing it in his 
face. The animal rushes at him, and as the latter glides out of 
the arena through one of the passages, vents his rage upon the 
boards which separate him from the object of his pursuit. But 
he expends only a moment upon this idle warfare. He sees 
another picador drawn up to receive him, and he attacks him 
with the same fury as he did the first. The picador's arm is a 
little stronger than the other's, or he wields his spear with more 
dexterity, and the bull is partially foiled. But he returns to 
the charge in an instant, tears open the horse's flank by a suc- 
cessful thrust, and hurls him and his rider to the ground. The 
chulos are again upon him, clashing their long scarfs into his 
face, and he turns upon them, leaving the ill-fated horse and 
rider to regain their feet. He is now engaged for some moments 
in a warfare with the chulos. As he turns upon one, or rather 
upon the scarf he carries, another assails him on the opposite 



BULL — TERRIFIC STRUGGLES. 305 

side, always turning him off from his object, and gradually wast- 
ing his strength. But the picadors have only a brief respite. 
He discovers a third, and he seems glad to exchange the bewil- 
dering attacks of the scarf-bearers for a contest with a more 
tangible enemy. He rushes on with renewed fury, the spear of 
the picador enters his shoulder, and then falls powerless from 
the rider's hand. The infuriated animal breaks down all oppo- 
sition by his prodigious force. The horse and rider share the 
fate of the two first. The rider is thrown and the horse is 
shockingly gored. The latter runs into the centre of the arena, 
and there stands, his bowels torn out, and his whole frame shi- 
vering with pain. The bull, who has been turned aside by the 
chulos, discovers him, dashes at him, takes him up, and actually 
carries him several paces on his horns, and then lets him fall 
heavily to the ground. Had we not witnessed this wonderful 
effort of strength, we should have considered it incredible. The 
arena now presents a scene as full of brutality as the most 
ardent lover of the bull-fight could desire. The horse just over- 
turned is at his last gasp on the ground, and the two others are 
dragging their entrails about the arena. The bull's neck is 
streaming with blood, his tongue is protruded from his mouth, 
and he is standing a moment, regardless of the chulos, who are 
besetting him, collecting his waning strength for another con- 
test with his enemies, A fourth picador approaches him, and 
he instantly attacks him. But he is obviously weakened by 
loss of blood, and by the efforts he has already made. His 
attacks are less vigorous, and he is more than once turned aside 
by the spear. He succeeds in wounding the horse ; but the 
rent in the horse's flank is a slight one, and the picador leads 
him out to have it coarsely sewed up, and then brings him back 
again for another contest. The bull is now nearly exhausted, 



306 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

and the banderilleros come in, with barbed darts covered with 
fireworks, which they thrust into him, and he is soon enveloped 
in smoke and flame. This is the last stage of torture. A 
trumpet sounds, and the matador enters. In his left hand he 
holds a red flag, and in his right a straight sword. He is 
dressed even more expensively than the picadors and chulos, in 
a richly embroidered jacket, with white breeches and silk stock- 
ings. It is the celebrated Montez, the most expert bull-killer 
in Spain, and he is greeted with thundering plaudits by the 
spectators. He advances towards the bull, who eyes him wa- 
rily, as if he were aware that a new and more dangerous antag- 
onist had taken the field against him. But the animal hesitates 
only a moment. Gathering all his strength, he rushes upon the 
red flag which the matador holds out on his left side, pointing 
with his right the fatal sword at the bull's neck. The bull 
staggers and falls. The sword has entered the spine, and the 
blood pours in streams from his nose and mouth. Thus ends 
the first scene — a scene loathsome, disgusting, brutal, and bar- 
barous — a scene only fit to gratify assassins and to create them 
— managed with some dexterity, it is true, but without a parti- 
cle of chivalric bearing, and under all its aspects, a stain upon 
the humanity and civilization of the age. The moment the bull 
has received his mortal wound, one of the gates is thrown open, 
and three mules, harnessed abreast, and adorned with flaunting 
ribbons, are driven in to drag him out. Two others follow, 
drawing out the dead horse and the half-living one, who has not 
strength to stand. But this is only the first scene in the enter- 
tainment. Seven other bulls are successively brought in to 
undergo the same tortures, and to encounter the same fate. 
Before they are all killed, eleven horses are dragged out, dead 
or dying, from the arena. The matadors, the picadors, the 



REFLECTION ON CRUELTY. 301 

banderilleros, and the clmlos, all escape uninjured, or, at the 
most, with some slight sprains. Though there was, perhaps, 
less applause, aud less apparent gratification among the great 
body of the spectators than we had expected, it is not to be 
disguised that it is a favorite amusement. About one-third 
were females. Of these, one was an Englishwoman whom we 
had met in our travels, the only lady of Anglo-Saxon origin 
present ; but before the first bull was killed, she rose and left 
the arena, filled with horror and disgust. Of the tendency of 
these brutal spectacles to blunt the sensibilities, and to prepare 
the mind to dwell with indifference upon scenes of bloodshed 
and cruelty, there can be no rational doubt. We believe it to 
be neither a harsh nor an erroneous judgment to say, that no 
people with whom the bull-fight is a national amusement, can 
ever attain a high rank in the scale of civilization. They may 
have their peculiar virtues ; but humanity towards their fellows, 
or towards the brutes which Providence has placed in their 
hands, to be governed and used in kindness and in mercy, will 
not be one. The cruelty with which the civil wars of 
Spain have been waged of late years — the hands cut off, the 
eyes put out, the horrible maimings, in modes too wanton and 
loathsome to be named — are all the legitimate offspring of the 
lessons of barbarity taught in the arena. Where the matador 
is a hero and a favorite, and is, as it were, incorporated into 
the social mass by the force of opinion, the assassin and the 
bandit may claim, with some color of title, a place there also. 
At all events, they will not be wanting. There is equal truth 
and philosophy in the closing stanza of Byron's description of 
the bull-fight : 



308 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

" Such the ungentle sport that oft incites 

The Spanish maid, and cheers the Spanish swain. 
Nurtured in blood betimes, his heart delights 
In vengeance, gloating on another's pain. 
What private feuds the troubled village stain ! 
Though now one phalanxed host should meet the foe, 

Enough, alas ! in humble homes remain, 
To meditate 'gainst friends the secret blow, 
For some slight cause of wrath, whence life's warm stream 
must flow." 

Childe Harold, Canto I. 80. 

INNER VIEWS. 

The Calle de la Surge, the Bond street of Seville leads to the 
Plaza del Duque, where the great Dukes of Medina Sidona had 
their palace. This central square is planted, and forms the 
fashionable nocturnal promenade during the summer months, 
and which is so southern and slocking. 

Continuing from the Plaza, past the Church of San Yicente, 
to the old and deserted Alemeda, where the fountain of the 
archbishop casts its excellent water, there remain awhile to 
observe the residence of the horse-dealers and jockeys, whose 
dealing in cattle ■ is constantly going on. In June this Ale- 
meda is the scene of vigils and wakes ; these nocturnal services 
are kept up with much activity on St. John's day, and the fes- 
tival is proverbially merry. 

" La de San Juan en Sevilla 
Es alegre a maravilla !" 

" The way Saint John's day is kept in Seville, 
Is gay enough, I'm sure, for the Devil." 

This St. John's, our midsummer eve, is devoutly dedicated 



MANTILLAS AND FLIRTATIONS. 309 

to flirtation by both sexes, who go or ought to go out at day- 
break to gather vervain, coger la verbena, which represents in 
Spain the magical fern-seed of our English forefathers. The 
Spanish ladies make use of their mantillas in flirtations, and 
join the skillful management of the fan in their coquetry. 
This article of dress is in a state of perpetual motion, ever 
used by them and yet without much use to refresh them, except 
in coquetting, for they flourish them with a movement similar 
to the wings of a fluttering bird, making them serve the double 
purpose of conveying their thoughts, and of concealing their 
emotions. At this feast bonfires are lighted in sign of rejoic- 
ings, like the bcn-feu of the British Guy Eawkes — over and 
through which the lower classes leap ; all this is the exact 
manner by which the ancients celebrated the entrance of the 
sun into the summer solstice. 

To the left of the fountain del Arzobispo is a barrack of 
tattered invalids, which once was a convent of Jesuits, and 
when that order was suppressed, was given up to the Inquisi- 
tion. The eclifice r rather cheerful than forbidding, partakes 
more of the character of the first proprietors, than of the 
horror of the second. Dismantled by the populace, it con- 
tains no record of its dungeons and torture rooms ; but, fast 
hastening to ruin, is in all respect a fit abode for its inmates. 

A fair is held every Thursday in La Feria, where majos and 
majas may be seen in all the brilliant costume of tinsel and 
velvet, while students walk the streets, chanting like the old 
troubadours, not for charity merely, but shaking their tambou- 
rines in concert with their thrummed guitars in order to earn 
the means for their education at the University. 

The scene is Oriental, and reminding you of the Sock e 
juma of Cairo. The street in which it occurs leads to the 



310 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

Plaza de la Encarnacion — now the market-place, to construct 
which the French jplled down a convent, dedicated to the 
Incarnation. You will find fish, flesh, fruits, and fowls, the 
fish and game are excellent, as is also the pork, when fattened 
by the autumnal acorn, the lellota. Instinct teaches these 
beasts to fatten themselves on the good things which a bounti- 
ful nature provides. The meats which require artificial care, 
and the attention of man, are very far inferior. The purchases 
made of the two-ounce "joints" of meat for the poverty 
stricken olla, seem as parsimonious as in the time of Justin. It 
must be remembered that in this burning clime less anamel food, 
which generates caloric, is necessary than in the cold north. 
Notwithstanding the Spanish proverb considers the man who 
dines in Seville as especially favored by heaven, " A quien Dios 
quiere lien, en Sevilla le da comer," few of my readers will 
think so. 

Don Pedro's bust in a neighboring street was placed there in 
memorial of his having stabbed a man. His and Lord Byron's 
"friend" Don Juan was a Sevillian map, and a true hidalgo at 
that. 

A marble tablet is thus inscribed, near the aperture left for 
charitable donations, in the foundling hospital of La Cuna. 
" Quoniam pater meus et mater mea deliquerant me Dominus 
autem assumpsit." (Psalms xxvii. 10.) A wicket door is 
pierced in the wall, which opens on being tapped to receive the 
sinless children of sin, whom a nurse sits up at night to take 
in. This, formerly little better than a charnel house, has been 
taken in charge by some benevolent ladies, assisted by the Sis- 
ters of Charity, and is admirably conducted : a duty of a real 
being levied on every bushel of corn sold in the market. 



CONVENT ORANGE GROVES. 311 



A RIDE ROUND SEVILLE. 

" A horse! a horse ! 
My kingdom for a horse !" 

Shakspere, Richard III. 

Quite early in the morning of a balmy August day, our party 
was mounted on Andalucian steeds ready to start on a ride 
around the walls of the city. Seville is surrounded by suburbs, 
and the circuit of its well preserved Moorish w T alls contains 
.many objects of great interest. We commenced going out from 
the Calle Gallegos by the Royal Gate, through which St. Ferdi- 
nand entered in triumph. Emerging from a dip to the right, is 
the College of San Laureano, behind which are the ruins of the 
house of Fernando, son of the great Columbus, we soon reach- 
ed the suburbs of Los Humeros. Here were the tunnels and 
Moorish Dock-yards — and it is supposed to have been the 
site of the Roman naval arsenal. It is now tenanted by gip- 
sies, the zincali spoken of by Barrow, who are ever ready to 
get up a funcionj or gipsy dance for the stranger's dinero or 

money. 

Turning to the right, between the river banks and the walls, 

a raised rampart and planted walk suggests the frequent inun- 
dations to which this side of the city is exposed, while opposite 
its orange-groves the remains of the old Cartuja Convent, 
stand in bold relief before the distant towers of Italica and 
the purple hills of the Siera Morena. 

In the Chozas opposite the gate of San Juan, w r here the 
ferry boats ply, ichthyophiles go to eat shad. Huevos and 
Savolo, fresh shad and eggs are the correct thing for the epicure, 
although this fish is rather unwholesome in summer. 



312 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

Here also El Sollo, the sturgeon, is caught, one of which the 
cathedral chapter used to send to the royal table, reserving 
many others for their own. The walls now turn to the right. 
Half a mile outside is the once noble convent of St. Jerome, 
called, from its pleasant views, La buena vista. The Patio, in 
Doric and Ionic worthy of Herrera, was designed by two 
monks. It is now a glass manufactory. Here Axataf took 
his last farewell of Seville, when St. Ferdinand entered. Re- 
turning by gardens hedged with aloes and tall whispering 
canes, is San Lazaro, the Leper Hospital, founded in 1254. 
The interior is miserable, as the funds of this true Lazar-house 
are converted by the trustees chiefly to their own use. Here 
will be seen cases of elephantiasis, the hideous swelled leg, a 
disease common in Barbary, and not rare in Andalucia, and 
which is extended by the charity- imploring patient in the way 
of the passenger, whose eye is startled and pained by what at 
first seems a huge cankered boa-constrictor. These hospitals 
were always placed outside the cities; so, among the Jews, 
"lepers were put out of the camp." (Numb. v. 2.) The 
plague-stricken were compelled to dwell alone. (Ley. xiii. 46.) 
The word Leper o, at Mexico, is equivalent to " beggar." He 
is the Lazzarone of Naples, that Paradise of idlers. 

A Moorish causeway, raised in order to be a dam against 
inundations, leads to La Marcarena, the huge La Sangre Hos- 
pital rising to the right; this is the suburb of the poor and 
agricultural laborers. The tattered and party-colored deni- 
zens of all ages and sexes, the children often stark naked, vetus 
du climat, as in Barbary, and like bronze Cupids, cluster outside 
their hovels in the sun. Their carts, implements, and animals 
are all pictures; everything seems naturally to fall into a 
painter's group, a tableau vivant, and particularly as regards 



SUBJECTS FOR ARTISTS. 313 

certain " small deer," caza menor, for which a regular battue 
is always going on in the thick preserves of the womens' hair. 
Here it was that Murillo came for subject and color; here are 
the rich yellows and browns in which he revelled; here are 
beggars, imps, and urchins, who, with their parents, when 
simply transcribed by his faithful hand, seemed to walk out of 
the frames, for their life and reality carries every spectator away. 

Continuing the ride, turn left, to the enormous Hospital de 
la Sangre, or de las cinco Llagas, the five bleeding wounds of 
our Saviour, which are sculptured like bunches of grapes. 
Blood is an ominous name for this house of Sangrado, whose 
lancet, like the Spanish knife, gives little quarter. The inten- 
tion of the foundress, Catalina de Ribera, was more perfect 
than the performance of her successors; after her death the 
funds were misapplied, and the building remains, and may 
remain, unfinished, although a pious person named Andueza, 
has left legacies for the purpose. 

The south and principal fagade, 600 feet long, presents a 
noble architectural appearance of the classical Ionic and Doric 
style. The portal is one of the good architectural bits in 
Seville. The interior Patio is striking; the handsome chapel 
occupies the centre ; on the front are sculptured medallions of 
Faith, Hope, and Charity, by Pedro Machuca: the chapel is a 
Latin cross, with Ionic pillars; tine- Ret alio of the high altar 
was designed by Maeda, in 1600, and gilt by Alonso Vazquez, 
whose pictures in it have suffered from neglect and repainting. 
Observe the " Crucifixion," with the "Magdalen," and eight 
Virgins, by Zurbaran, of no great merit. Pictures, at all 
events, were not restored in this hospital, as many have been 
used as floor-cloths and scrubbing-towels. 

The interior management of this hospital, now the principal 

14 



31-1 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

one of Seville, is hardly yet a thing of which Medical Spain can 
be proud, although recently somewhat improved. 

Returning to the city walls, observe la BarhacanaJ the Barbi- 
can, Arabice Bab-el-cana, the gate of the mount: the circum- 
vallation all the way to the gate of Osario is admirably pre- 
served: it is built of tapia, with square towers and battlements, 
or alamenas, which girdle Seville with a lace-like fringe. This 
side of Seville suffered somewhat from the bombardment in 
July, 1843. 

At the gate of Carmona the scene becomes more alive. 
The long lines of the aqueduct, Los Canos de Carmona, now 
run picturesquely up to the Cruz del Campo. It is here in 
April that all the world goes, or used to go, to behold the 
Majos return from the Feria de Mairena. The next gate is la 
Came, so called because leading to the shambles. To the left 
is the suburb San Bernardo, which must be visited; the mounds 
of earth are composed of the collected heaps of Seville dust- 
holes; a planted walk leads to the Fundicion, the artillery 
foundry erected by Charles III., who employed one Maritz, a 
Swiss, to cast his cannon; once one of the finest in Europe, 
now it is one of the worst: power of motion is obtained by 
mules or rude maquinas de sangre, engines of blood, not steam, 
and murderous is the waste of animal labor. Soult reorganized 
this establishment. Here were cast those mortars with which 
Yictor did not take Cadiz, while one of them ornaments St. 
James's Park. Soult, before he fled, ordered, as a parting 
legacy, the foundry to be blown up, but the mine accidentally 
failed. The furnaces were then filled with iron, and with those 
cannon which he could not remove; but the amalgamated 
masses were subsequently got out by the Spaniards, and remain 
as evidence of his cuisine Franchise. The relic is called la 



TAUROMACHIAN COLLEGE. 315 

torta Francesa, or French omelette. A darker crime was 
planned and perpetrated; a flint was placed in the wheel of a 
powder-mill, which, when set in motion, struck against a steel, 
and thus, by this cowardly and fiendish contrivance, Colonel 
Duncan and other men were blown to atoms. 

In this suburb was the celebrated Porta Cell (Cceli), founded 
in 1450; here was printed the Bula de Crusada, so called 
because granted by Innocent III., to keep the Spanish cru- 
saders in fighting condition, by letting them eat meat rations 
in Lent when they could get them. This, the bull, la Bula, is 
announced with grand ceremony every January, when a new 
one is taken out by all who wish to eat meat with a safe con- 
science, and for the small sum of dos reales, sixpence. The sale of 
these bulls produces about £200,000; the breaking one fast dur- 
ing Lent, inspires more horror than breaking any two command- 
ments; and few genuine Spaniards can, in spite of their high 
breeding, disguise the disgust with which they see Protestants 
eating meat breakfasts during Lent. It sometimes disarms 
them by saying " Tengo mi hula para todo." The French 
robbed the till, burnt the printing-presses, and converted every- 
thing into a ruin. 

The Parroquia de San Bernardo contains a superb " Last 
Judgment," by the dashing Herrera el Yiejo; a "Last Sup- 
per/ 7 by Yarela, 1622; and a statue of the "Tutelar," by 
Montanes. Here also is the matadero 7 the slaughter-house, and 
close by Ferdinand VII. founded his Tauromachian University. 
These localities are frequented by the Seville fancy, whose 
favorite and classical dishes of a sort of tripe, callos y menudos, 
are here eaten in perfection. See Pliny, 'N. H. ? viii. 51, as to 
merits of the Callum. IS. B. — Drink manzanilla wine with 
these peppery condiments; they are highly provocative, and, 



316 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

like hunger, la Salsa de San Bernardo, are appropriately 
cooked in the parish of this tutelar of Spanish appetite. The 
sunny flats under the old Moorish walls, which extend between 
the gates of Carmona and La Carne, are the haunts of idlers, 
Barateros, and gamesters. The lower classes of Spaniards are 
constantly gambling at cards: groups are to be seen playing 
all day long for wine, love, or coppers, in the sun, or under their 
vine-trellises. 

The space near the Plaza de la Carne on Sabado Santo, 
which is equivalent to our Easter Monday, is where the Pas- 
chal lambs are sold, or corderos de Pascua, as Easter is termed 
in Spanish. The bleating animals are confined in pens of 
netted rope-work ; on every side the work of slaughter is going 
on; gipsies erect temporary shambles on this occasion; groups 
of children are everywhere leading away pet lambs, which are 
decorated with ribbons and flowers. The amateur will see in 
them, and in their attitudes, the living originals from which 
Murillo faithfully copied his St. Johns and the infant Saviour, 
el divino Pastor. This buying and selling continues from the 
Saturday until the end of Monday. 

The huge mounds of rubbish opposite, are composed of the 
accumulated dungholes of Seville, and under them are buried 
those who have died of plagues, which these Immondezzaios 
are enough to render endemic. * 

Returning to the walls are the cavalry barracks, in which 
horses and saddles are occasionally wanting. Now the Alcazar 
towers above the battlemented girdle of walls to the right. 
The classical gate, San Fernando, was built in 1760; here it 
was that the Virgin miraculously introduced St. Ferdinand into 
Seville during the siege. 

To the left is the Fabrica de Tabacos. where tobacco is made 



SNUFF AND CIGAR FACTORY. 3H 

into snuff and cigars. The edifice has twenty-eight interior 
patios, and the enormous space covers a quadrangle of 662 feet 
by 524. It was built in vile taste in 1157, by one Vandem- 
beer, a fantastic Dutchman. It is guarded by a moat, not 
destined to prevent men getting in, but cigars being smuggled 
out. 

There are sometimes as many as eight thousand pairs of 
hands employed in making cigars, and principally female: a 
good workwoman can do in a day from ten to twelve bundles, 
atados, each of which contain fifty cigars; but their tongues are 
busier than their fingers, and more mischief is made than cigars. 
Few of them are good-looking, yet these cigarreras are among 
the lions of Seville, and, like the grisettes of Paris, form a class 
of themselves. They are reputed to be more impertinent than 
chaste : they wear a particular mantilla de tira, which is always 
crossed over the face and bosom, allowing the upper part only 
of most roguish-looking features to peep out. In the under- 
fioor a fine rappee snuff is made, called tobacco de fraile : it is 
colored with red almagra, an earth brought from the neighbor- 
hood of Cartagena. 

On the flat plain outside the walls, called El Prado de San 
Sebastian, was the Quemadero, or the burning-place of the 
Inquisition: here the last act of tragedy of the auto-de-fe was 
performed by the civil power. The spot of fire is marked by 
the foundations of a square platform on which the faggots were 
piled. Here, in 1180, a beata, or female saint, was burnt, for 
taking upon herself the heretical office of hatching eggs. 
Townsend, however, (ii. 342,) says that she was very bewitch- 
ing, and had a successful monomania for seducing clergymen. 

The Spaniards are still very shy of talking about the Que- 
madero ; sons of burnt fathers, they dread the fire. Con el Rey 



318 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

y la Inquisition, chiton ! chiton ! Hush ! hush ! say they with 
finger on lip, like the image of Silence, with King and Inquisi- 
tion. 

It is as well, therefore, here as elsewhere, to avoid jesting or 
criticism on this matter; Con el ojo y la fe, nunca me burlare. 
Spaniards, who, like Moslems, allow themselves a wide latitude 
in laughing at their priests, are very touchy on every subject 
connected with their creed: it is a remnant of the loathing of 
heresy, and their dread of a tribunal which they think sleepeth, 
but is not dead, scotched rather than killed. In the changes 
and chances of Spain it may be re-established, and, as it 
never forgets nor forgives, it will surely revenge, and the spirit 
of the Inquisition is still alive, for no king, cortes, or con- 
stitution ever permits, in Spain, any approach to any religious 
toleration. 

Seville was the head-quarters of these bright fires. The 
great claim put forth in 162? for the beatification of St. Fer- 
dinand was, that he had carried faggots himself to burn here- 
tics. But the spirit of the age was then fanatically ferocious. 
Philip le Bel, a monster of cruelty and perfidy, his cousin, and 
son of Saint Louis, tortured and burnt the templers by a slow 
fire near his royal garden. The holy tribunal was first fixedly 
established at Seville in 1481, by Sixtus IV., at the petition 
of Ferdinand, who used it as an engine of finance, police, and 
revenge. He assigned to it the citadel of Triana. Tomas de 
Torquemada was the first high-priest. According to the best 
authorities, from 1481 to 1808, the Holy Tribunal of Spain 
burnt 34,612 persons alive, 18,048 in effigy, and imprisoned 
288,109 ; the goods and chattels of every one of them being 
first duly confiscated. In addition to these victims it entailed 
to poor, uncommercial, indolent Spain, the expulsion of her 



CATACOMB SYSTEM. 319 



wealthy Jews, and her most industrious agriculturists, the 
Moors. The dangerous engine, when the supply of victims 
was exhausted, recoiled on the nation, and fitted it for that 
yoke, heavy and grievous, under which, for three centuries, it 
has done penance ; the works of Llorente have fully revealed 
the secrets of priestcraft in power. The best account of an 
Auto-de-fe is the official report of Jose del Olmo, 4to., pub- 
lished at Madrid in 1680. 

Near the Quemadero is San Diego, a suppressed Jesuit con- 
vent, and given in 1784 to Mr. Wetherell, who was tempted 
by Spanish promises to exchange the climate of Snow Hill, 
Holborn, for torrid Andalucia. This intelligent gentleman, 
having established a tannery, and introduced steam-machinery 
and workmen into Spain, was ruined by the bad faith of the 
government, which failed in both payments and promises. The 
property has now passed by a Spanish trick into other hands, 
who bribed the court of appeal to allow a false deed or Escri- 
tura. Mr. Wetherell lies buried in his garden surrounded by 
those of his countrymen who have died in -Seville : requiescant 
in pace ! 

On the other side of the plain is the great city cemetery of 
San Sebastian. Into this Romanist Necropolis no heretic, if 
dead, is allowed to enter. The catacomb system is here 
adopted : a niche is granted for six or seven years, and the 
term can be renewed (prorogado) by a new payment. A large 
grave or ditch is opened every day, into which the bodies of 
the poor are cast like dogs, after being often first stripped by 
the sextons even of their rags. 

Returning from San Sebastian to Seville, the change from 
death at the Puerto, de Xerez is striking : here all is life and 
flower. The new walk was laid out by Arjona, in honor of 



320 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 



Christina, then the young bride of. Ferdinand VII. El Salon 
is a raised central saloon, with stone seats around. Of an 
afternoon all the "rank and fashion" assemble to promenade 
here. Beyond, along the bank of the river are Las Delicias, a 
charming ride and walk. Here is the botanical garden. 

At the land side of the walk is the churrigueresque nautical 
college of San Telmo, the patron of Spanish sailors, as, when 
the storm is going to be over, he appears at the mast-head with 
a lambent flame. It was founded by Fernando, son of Colum- 
bus, and built in 1682 by Antonio Rodriguez. Here the mid- 
dies were taught navigation from a small model of a three-decker. 

The Puerta de Xerez, said to be built by Hercules (Hercules 
me ediftcb, ante,) was at all events rebuilt by the infidel. The 
Moorish walls hang over the reedy Tagarete, and once were 
painted in fresco. Up to 1821 they connected the Alcazar 
with the outpost tower, called La tor re del Oro, " of gold," to 
distinguish it from La Torre de Plata, that " of silver," which 
lies nearer the mint. These fine names are scarcely sterling, 
both being built of Moorish tapia. The former one absurdly 
ascribed to Julius Caesar, was raised by the Almohades, who 
called it Borjw d-dahab, " the tower of gold," because their 
treasure was kept in it ; now it is only gilded by sunsets. It 
was used by Don Pedro el Cruel as a prison for his enemies and 
his mistresses. The Spaniards have built a trumpery modern 
sentry-box on the top of this Moorish tower, where their red 
and yellow flag occasionally is hoisted. 

Passing on is the Aduana or Custom-house, a hot-bed of 
queer dealings, which lies between the Postigos de Carbon and 
del Aceite : inside are some pretty old houses for the artist : on 
the river-shore is a solitary crane, el i?igenio, which now suffices 
to unload the scanty commerce of fallen Seville. 



DRIED CODFISH. 321 



Close by are " the Atarazanas," the Dar-san'-ah, or house 
of construction of the Moors, whence the Genoa term darsena, 
and our word arsenal. The present establishment was founded 
by Alonso el Sabio, and his Gotho-Latin inscription still re- 
mains imbedded in the wall near the Caridad. Observe the 
blue azulejos said to be from designs by Murillo, who painted 
the glorious pictures for the interior. 

Near this is the modern arsenal, which generally is miserably 
provided, and never is worth inspection. 

Adjoining the arsenal is the quarter of the dealers of hacalao 
or salted codfish. " You may nose them in the lobby." This 
article long formed a most important item in national food. 
The numerous religious corporations, and fast-days, necessarily 
required this, for fresh-water fish is rare, and sea-fish almost 
unknown, in the great central parameras of the Peninsula. 
The shrivelled dried-up cod-fish is easily conveyed on muleback 
into uncarriageable recesses. It is much consumed still all 
along the tierra caliente or warm zone of Spain, Alicante being 
the port for the south-east, as Seville is for the south portions : 
Exposed to the scorching sun, this salt-fish is anything but 
sweet, and our readers when on a journey are cautioned not to 
eat it, as it only creates an insatiable thirst, to say nothing of 
the unavailing remorse of a non-digesting stomach ; at all 
events it ought to be put many hours al remojo, to soak irr 
water, which takes out the salt and softens it. 

In this piscatose corner of Seville, poverty delights to feed 
on the Oriental cold fried fish, and especially slices of large 
flounders, whiting, and small bits of hacalao fried in yolk of 
eggs, called familiarly Scldaos de Pavia, because yellow was 
the uniform of that regiment. 

Next observe the heraldic gate, del Arena!, of the Strand, 

14* 



322 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

and a sort of Temple Bar ; the contiguous streets have long 
been inhabited by denizens of indifferent reputation ; here the 
rogue of a Ventero in Don Quixote was educated ; here Cer- 
vantes placed the school of Monopodio, who in his Rinconete y 
Cordadillo, " Hole-and-corner man and cut-purse," gave the 
idea of Fagin to Boz. The open space in front is called la 
Carreteria, because here carts and carters resort ; and also el 
Baratillo the " little chepe," from being a rag-fair, and place 
for the sale of marine stores or stolen goods. Near this is the 
Plaza de Toros, which is a fine amphitheatre, although still 
unfinished, especially on the cathedral side, which at least lets in 
the Giralda and completes the picture, when the setting sunrays 
gild the Moorish tower as the last bull dies, and the populace — 
fez nondum lassata — unwillingly retire (see "Gatherings.") 
This Plaza is under the superintendence of the Maestranza of 
Seville, whose uniform is scarlet. 

Leaving the Plaza we now approached el Rio, the River 
Strand, where a petty traffic is carried on of fruit, mattings, 
and goods brought up in barges ; a rude boat-bridge here for 
ages stemmed the Guadalquivir, and was at once inconvenient 
in passage and expensive in repair : formerly it was a ferry, 
until Yusuf abu Yacub first threw across some barges, October 
11, 1111, by which the city was provisioned from the fertile 
Ajar of e; the destruction of this communication by St. Ferdi- 
nand led to the surrender of Seville. This bridge of boats has 
been for ages a source of profit to the commissioners, who have 
received funds sufficient to have built one of marble : recently 
a suspension-bridge has been erected, after the designs, we 
believe, of Mr. Clark. 

Next observe el Triunfo, a monument common in Spanish 
towns, and raised in honor of the triumph obtained by the 



CRADLE OF THE FOURTH FURY. 323 

advocates of the Immaculate Conception ; a statue of the Vir- 
gin and local tutelars arc usually placed on the erection ; the 
Doric gate which here leads into the town is called la Puerto, 
de Triana, because facing that suburb ; it was erected in 1588, 
and is attributed to Herrera. The upper story was used as a 
state prison — a Newgate : here the Conde del Aguila, the Mae- 
cenas of Seville, was murdered by the patriots, urged on by the 
Catiline Tilli (see Schep. i. 269, and Doblado's Letters, p. 439.) 
The plain beyond was formerly el Pemeo, or the pig-market ; 
during the cholera, in 1833, the unclean animals were removed 
to the meadows of the virgin patronesses Justa and Rufina, 
behind San Agustin, and the space made into an esplanade : 
now re-entering by the Puerta Real the circuit is concluded. 

TRIANA AND ITALICA. 

A pleasant excursion could also be made on the right bank 
of the Guadalquivir, crossing over the boat-bridge to the sub- 
urb Triana, the Moorish Tarayanah, a name supposed to be a 
corruption from Trajana } Trajan having been born near it, at 
Italica. It is the Transtevere of Seville, and the favorite 
residence of gipsies, bull-fighters, smugglers, robbers, and other 
picturesque rascals ; hence it is much frequented by the dficion, 
by fancy men and Majos, who love low company; this is the 
place to behold a funcion de gitanos, got up in all the glory of 
Gaditanian dancing, jaleos y aranas. To the right, on crossing 
the bridge, are some remains of the once formidable Moorish 
castle, which was made the first residence of the Inquisition, 
the cradle of that fourth Fury. The Guadalquivir, which 
blushed at the fires, and curdled with the blood shed, almost 
swept away this edifice in 1626, as if indignant at the crimes 



324 TRACES OF THE ROHAN AND MOOR. 

committed on its bank. The tribunal was then moved to the 
Calk San Marcos, and afterwards to the Alameda Vieja. The 
ruined castle was afterwards taken down, and the site converted 
into the present market. 

The parish church, Santa Ana, was built by Alonso el Sabio, 
in 1276: the image of the " Mother of the Virgin," in the high 
altar, is a Virgen aparecida, or a divinely revealed palladium, 
and is brought out in public calamities, but as a matter of 
etiquette it never crosses the bridge, which would be going out 
of its parochial jurisdiction. 

Visit the church, Naestra Senora del O; many females are 
here christened with this vowel. Great quantities of course 
azwlejo and loza, earthenware, are still made here as in the days 
of Santas Justa and Rufina. The nara?ijales J or orange- 
gardens, are worth notice. The principal street is called de 
Castilla : here the soap-makers lived, whence our term Castile 
soap. 

Following the banks of a stream we reach the miserable 
village of Santi Ponce, a corruption from the name of San 
Geronico, its Gothic bishop, or, according to others, of Santo 
Pozo, the "holy well:" it was the once ancient Italica, the 
birthplace of the Emperors Trajan, Adrian, and Theodosius; it 
was founded IT. C. 54 T, on the site of the Iberian town Sancios, 
by Scipio Africanus, and destined as a home for his veterans. 
It was adorned by Adrian with sumptuous edifices. 

Many medals are found and offered for sale to foreigners by 
the peasants, who, with a view of recommending their wares, 
polish them bright, and rub off the precious bloom, the patina 
and aerugo, the sacred rust of twice ten hundred years. 

The amphitheatre lies outside the old town. On the way 
ruins peep amid the weeds and olive-groves, like the grey bones 



LIKE GREENWICH FAIR. 325 

of dead giants. The amphitheatre, in 1714, was used by the 
corporation of Seville for river dikes, and for making the road 
to Badajoz. See the details of an eye-witness, " Viaje desde 
Granada a Lisboa" duo. 1774, p. 70. The form is, however, 
yet to be traced, and the broken tiers of seats. The scene is 
sad and lonely: a few gipsies usually lurk among the vaults. 
The visitors scramble over the broken seats of once easy access, 
frightening the glittering lizards, or Lagartos, which hurry into 
the rustling brambles. Behind, in a small valley, a limpid 
stream still trickles from a font, and tempts the thirsty traveler, 
as it once did the mob of Italica, when heated w T ith games of 
blood. 

The Feria de Santi Ponce is the Greenwich fair of Seville: 
then booths are erected in the ancient bed of the river, which 
becomes a scene of Majeza and their Jakes. The holiday 
folk, in all their Andalucian finery, return at nightfall in 
Carretas filled with Gitanas y Corraleras, while los majos 
y los de la aficion (fancy) vuelven a caballo, con sus queriditas 
en ancas. Crowds of the better classes come or used to come 
out to see this procession, and sit on chairs in the Calle de 
Castillo,, which resounds with requiebros, and is enlivened with 
exhibitions of small horns made of barro, the type of the 
Cornudo paciente of Seville; civilization, alas! is effacing these 
nationalities; already the females are quitting their charming 
costume for bonnets a la Franqaise and Manchester cottons; 
then with their dark faces, white gowns, and gaudy ribbons, 
they put one in mind of May-day chimney-sweeps. 

The traveler may return from Italica to Seville by a different 
route ; keeping under the slopes of the hills opposite Seville, on 
the summit to the right, is Castileja de la Cuesta, from whence 
the view is fine and extensive. Here Fernan Cortes died 



326 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

December 2, 1541, aged sixty-three, a broken-hearted victim, 
like Ximenez, Columbus, Gonzalo de Cordova, and others, of 
his king's and country's ingratitude. He was first buried in 
San Isidoro at Italica, until his bones, like those of Columbus, 
after infinite movings and changings of sepulture, at last 
reached the scene of his glories and crimes during life. 

ORANGES. 



Honey, oh ! oranges, honey ! 

Who'll buy the sweet oranges ?" — London 



Cries, 



The panoramas of Seville are charming. On the opposite 
side of the river is the fine Naranjal, or orange-grove of 
the house of Beck, which is worth riding to. " Seville," says 
Byron, and truly, " is a pleasant city, famous for oranges and 
women." There are two sorts of the former, the sweet and the 
hitter (Arabice Naranga, unde JVaranja), of which Scotch 
marmalade is made, and Dutch Curagoa is flavored. The 
trees begin to bear fruit about the sixth year after they are 
planted, and the quality continues to improve for sixteen to 
twenty years, after which the orange degenerates, the rind 
gets thick, and it becomes unfit for the foreign market, which 
always takes the best. The trees flower in March, and perfume 
the air of Seville with the almost sickening odor, which retains 
its Arabic name Azahar; from the blossoms sweetmeats are 
made, and delicious orange-flower water; buy it at Aquilar's, 
Plasa San Vicente; nice sweetmeats are made of them by the 
nuns; to eat the orange in perfection, it should not be gathered 
until the new blossom appears. The oranges begin to turn 
yellow in October, and are then picked, as they never increase 
in size after changing color, they are wrapped in Catalan paper, 



OLIVES AND OIL. 32T 



and packed in chests, which contain from TOO to 1000 each, 
and may be worth to the exporter from 25s. to 30s. They ripen 
on the voyage, but the rind gets tough, and the freshness of 
the newly-gathered fruit is lost. The natives are very fanciful 
about eating them: they do not think them good before March, 
and poison if eaten after sunset. The venders in the street cry 
them as mas dulces que almibar, sweeter than syrup, like the 
"Honey, oh! oranges honey" of the Cairo chapmen. 

The village below the hill of Alfarache being exempt from 
the odious Derecho de puertas, and being a pleasant walk, is 
frequented on holidays by the Sevillians, who love cheap drink, 
etc. Those who remember what preceded the birth of El Picaro 
Guzman de Alfarache — a novel so well translated by Le Sage 
■ — may rest assured that matters are not much changed. Gelves, 
Gelduba, lies lower down the river. This village gives the title 
of Count to the descendants of Columbus: the family sepulchre 
is left in disgraceful neglect. 

EXCURSION TO AN OLIVE-PARK. 

The olives and oil of Baetica were celebrated in antiquity, 
and still form a staple and increasing commodity of Andalucia. 
The districts between Seville and Alcala, and in the Ajarafe, 
are among the richest in Spain: an excursion should be made 
to some large Hacienda, in order to examine the progress of 
the culture and the manufacture, which are almost identical 
with those described by Yarro, Columella, and Pliny. For- 
merly Seville was surrounded with splendid Haciendas, which 
combined at once a country-house, a village, and oil-manufac- 
tory; the fiestas convites de campo, kept by the wealthy proprie- 
tors, were here celebrated. The French troops, by destroying 



328 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

everything, dealt a heavy blow to this prosperity and happi- 
ness, and few of the ruined proprietors have been able to 
restore their ravaged establishments. 

San Bartolome, a farm belonging' to the Paterno family, is a 
fine specimen of a first-rate Hacienda; it contains about 20,000 
trees, each of which will yield from two to three bushels of 
olives; the whole produce averages 5000 arrobas (twenty-five 
pounds), which vary in price from two to five dollars. The 
olive-tree, however classical, is very un picturesque: its ashy 
leaf on a pollarded trunk reminds one of a second-rate willow- 
tree, while it affords neither shade, shelter, nor color. 

The trees are usually planted in formal rows : a branch is cut 
from the parent in January; the end is opened into four slits, 
into which a stone is placed; it is then planted, banked, and 
watered for two years, and as it grows is pruned into four or 
five upright branches: they begin to pay the expense about the 
tenth year, but do not attain their prime before the thirtieth. 
Whole plantations were burned down by the French, while the 
Duke issued strict orders forbidding it among his troops. 

The berry is picked in the autumn, when it is purple-colored 
and shining: then the scene is busy and picturesque; the 
peasant, clad in sheep-skins, is up in the trees like a satyr, 
beating off the fruit, while his children pick them up, and his 
wife and sisters drive the laden donkeys to the mill. The 
berries are then placed on a circular hollowed stone, over which 
another is moved by a mule ; the crushed mass, horugo borujo, 
is shoveled on to round mats, ca pitches, made of esparto, 
and taken to the press, el trwjol, which is forced down by a 
very long and weighty beam, composed of six or seven pine- 
trees, like a ship's bowsprit, over which, in order to resist the 
strain, a heavy tower of masonry is built; a score of frails of 



PROCESS OF MAKING OLIVES. 329 

the borujo is placed under the screw, moistened with hoi water, 
which is apt to make the oil rancid. The liquor as it flows out 
is passed into a reservoir below; the residuum comes forth like 
a damson-cheese, and is used for fuel and for fattening pigs ; the 
oil as it rises on the water is skimmed off, and poured into big- 
bellied earthen jars, tinajas, and then removed into still larger, 
which are sunk into the ground. These amphorae, made chiefly 
at Coria, near Seville, recall the jars of the forty thieves; some 
will hold from 200 to 300 arrobas, i. e. % from 800 to 1200 
gallons. 

The oil, aceite (Arabice azzait), is strong, and not equal to 
the purer, finer produce of Lucca, but the Spaniards, from 
habit, think the Italian oil insipid. The second-class oils are 
coarse, thick, and green-colored, and are exported for soap- 
making, or used for lamps. Candles are rare in Spain, where 
the ancient lamp, en velon or candil (Arabice handed), prevail, 
and are exactly such as are found at Pompeii. The farm is a 
little colony; the laborers are fed by the proprietor ; they are 
allowed bread, garlic, salt, oil, vinegar, and pi?nientos, which 
they make into migas and Oriental gazpacho (Arabice, soaked 
bread), without which, in the burning summers, their " souls 
would be dried away." (Xumbers xi. 6.) 

There are many kinds of olives: the first class are called 
las Reynas, las Padronas. The finest are made from the gonial, 
which only grow in a circuit of five leagues round Seville: the 
berry is gathered before quite ripe, in order to preserve the 
green color: it is pickled for six days in a Salmuera, or brine, 
made of water, salt, thyme, bay-laurel, and garlic; without 
this the olive would putrefy, as it throws out a mould, nata. 
The middling, or second classes, are called las Medianus, also 
las Moradas, from their purple color; these are often mixed in 



330 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 



a strong pickle, and are then called Alinadas: the worst sort 
are the Rebusco, Recasts, or the refuse; these, begarlicked and 
bepickled, form a staple article of food for the poor. The 
olive is nutritious, but heating; the better classes eat them 
sparingly, although a few are usually placed in saucers at their 
dinners. 



STEAM ON THE GUADALQUIVIR. 

At eight o'clock, while the sun was gilding the Tower of 
Gold, and its tafia form was darkened by the shadows of the 
trees planted on the banks, and near the spot where the wind- 
ing river skirts the pleasant public walks of Seville, we em- 
barked for Cadiz. 

The smoke of the steamer and the worrying examination of 
our baggage, dispelled the poetry and illusion of the far-famed 
and much over-rated Guadalquivir of fabulous and classical 
romance. "Thou, Bcetes," sing the native poets, "crowned 
with flowers and olives, and girdled by beauteous nymphs, 
waftest thy liquid crystal to the west, in a placid, amorous 
current." But the Andalucians seldom spare fine words, when 
speaking of themselves or their country ; and the river, in sober 
reality, is here as dull and dirty as the Thames, and its 
" Elysian Fields " are as unpicturesque as those at Hoboken, or 
the " Isle of Coney." The turbid stream slowly eats its way 
through an alluvial level, which is given up to herds of cattle 
and aquatic fowls; nothing could be more dreary; no white 
sails enlivened the silent waters, no villages cheered the desert 
steppes; here and there a hut offered refuge from the noontide 
sun. This reverain tract is called La Marisma, and in its 
swamps fevers and ague are perpetual. These fertile plains, 



MIRAGE. 331 



favorable to animal and vegetable life, are fatal to man ; the 
miserable peasantry, like those on the Pontine marshes, yellow 
skeletons when compared to their fat kine. Here, in the glare 
of summer, the mirage of the desert is complete, and mocks the 
thirsty sportsman. On the left hand, in the distance, rose the 
mountains of Ronda. 

The Guadalquivir is the " great river," the Wada-1-Kebir of 
the Moors, and traverses Andalucia from east to west. The 
Zincali, or Spanish gipsies, also call it Sen Baro, the great 
river. We, like Humboldt, suspect the proper etymology to be 
the Punic Lebitsin, the lakes or swamps of the Bceti's termina- 
tion. It rises in La Mancha. Under the Moors it was navigable 
to Cordova, thus forming a portavena to that district, which 
overflows with oil, corn and wine. Under the Spanish govern- 
ment these advantages were lost, and now small craft alone 
reach Seville with difficulty from the sea. 

The river below this city branched off, forming two unequal 
islands, La Isla Major and Menor. The latter was somewhat 
cultivated by a company, who formed a project for improving 
the navigation, and a canal was cut through La Ccrtadura, by 
which nine miles of the winding river were saved. Foreign ves- 
sels are generally moored here, and their cargoes are conveyed 
up and down in barges, whereby smuggling is facilitated. 

At Coria, famous under the Romans for bricks and pottery, 
the enormous earthenware jars in which oil and olive are kept, 
are still made. These tinejas are the precise amphora of the 
ancients. 

Passing beside the deserted wastes of Algaida, its sandy hil- 
locks, clothed with aromatic brushwood, dreary pines, and 
wild grapes, we overlooked the marisma, with its swamps and 
shifting sands — a fit home for birds and beast of prey, robbers 



332 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

and custom-house officers — and dropping down, swiftly past 
Saint Lucar, celebrated for its delicate pale straw-color Man- 
zanilla wine, of which Andalucians and dyspeptics are so fond, 
we soon ran round the point of Cipicora, where in ancient times 
the great Phoenician lighthouse indicated the entrance to the 
Guadalquivir at Cap Eon, the "Rock of the Sun." Shortly 
after rounding the point by sea, we entered the bay, where 
" fair Cadiz, rising o'er the dark blue sea," appeared like a line 
of ivory palaces. 



LION AND LIE OF ANTIQUITY. 333 



CADIZ. 

" But Cadiz, rising on the distant coast, 

Calls forth a sweeter, though ignoble praise." 

" Cadiz — sweet Cadiz ! It is the first spot in creation. The 
beauty of its streets and mansions is only excelled by the liveli- 
ness of its inhabitants. It is a complete Cythera, full of the 
finest women in Spain ; the Cadiz belles being the Lancashire 
witches of their land." Thus wrote Lord Byron, in a letter to 
his mother in 1809 ; and what was true then is not a whit less 
applicable at the present day. Fair Cadiz, looking like the 
newest, cleanest town in Spain, although one of the oldest in 
Europe, with its beautiful houses on the marina, and its location 
on a gore of land stretching its neck out to the sea, looked to 
us like an ivory barge floating at anchor in the middle of the 
ocean. Celebrated not only for its pretty women, but for its 
guitars and mattings of a fanciful oriental pattern, it is as well 
lighted and paved as it is well built. The Spanish compare it 
to a silver dish. Shaped like a ham, it rises on a rocky penin- 
sula, some ten to fifty feet above the sea, which girts it around, 
a narrow isthmus alone connecting the main land. 

This town, the Yenice or Paris of the ancients, was the great 
lie and lion of antiquity, and the Gades of the Romans. The 
Gaditanae were celebrated in the satires of Jurenal, when Italy 
imported the improber Gaditana, whose lascivious dances of ori- 



334 



TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 



ental origin still exist in the Romalis of the Andalucian gipsies. 
The prosperity of Gades fell with that of Rome, to both of 
which the foundation of Constantinople dealt the first blow. 
Destroyed by the Goth, and captured as Kadis from the Moors, 
by Alonso el Sabio, its existence was almost doubted under 
Urban IY. The discovery of the new world revived the pros- 
perity of a place which alone can exist by commerce ; and now 
the loss of its trans-atlantic colonies has been its ruin. Its 
final blow was given in 1596, when Cadiz was sacked by Lord 
Essex under the order of Elizabeth, who repaid the visit of the 
invincible Spanish Armada with interest. The booty of that 
conquest was enormous, and Spain has never fully recovered 
from the bankruptcy entailed by that terrible disaster. 

Notwithstanding Cadiz is " the end of the world," and offers 
small attraction to the scholar or man of pleasure, its society 
being commercial, and poverty has damped the gaiety of its peo- 
ple, so that it hardly is the jocosa Gades of the past, the women 
are still charming, and fascinate alike by their forms and man- 
ners. Now, that it is rather the city of Yenus, the mother of 
love, than of the chaste Diana, foreigners have introduced their 
vices into the inland towns of temperate and decent Spain. 
As a residence, it is but a sea prison, its water bad, and climate 
during summer detestable, being visited by the yellow fever. 

It was only by ascending the Torre de la Vigia, that we 
obtained a panorama over this smokeless, whitened city, with its 
miradores azoteas, its look-out towers and flat roofs, from whence 
the merchants formerly signalized the arrival of their galleons. 
The sea-ramparts, which encircle the city, extending for more 
than four miles round, are on one side of the cathedral, another 
tower, the most remarkable : here the rocks rise the highest, 
and the battering of the Atlantic is the greatest, as the waters 



SWIMMING GAIT. 335 



gain on the land. The maintenance of these protections is a 
constant source of expense and anxiety. Here idlers set an- 
gling all day for red mullet, with the proverbial patience and 
luck of fishermen, reaching their long poles over the sea walls. 

Following the lines of this break-water, we turned towards 
the alemeda. This charming w r alk was provided with trees, 
benches, fountain, and a miserable statue of Hercules, the foun- 
der of Cadiz, and whose effigy, grappling with two lions, the city 
bears for arms, with the motto, " Gadis fundator dominatorque" 
Every Spanish tow r n has a similar public walk for the cheap 
pleasure of all classes. Tomar el fresco, to take the coo], is the 
joy of these southern latitudes ; and none but those who have 
lived in the tropics can estimate the delights of the sea breeze 
which springs up after the scorching sun has sunk beneath the 
western wave. There is no fairer sight than an evening scene 
which is nightly to be enjoyed on the square of the Minta at 
Cadiz. 

The sun and the tides, the music and the whispering groves, 
may have well been, and they are to-day, the marvel and admi- 
ration of olden times ; but this is the spot to study the dark 
glancing descendants of those " Gaditanae," who turned more 
ancient heads than even the sun. The " Ladies of Cadiz/ 7 the 
theme of the old ballads, have retained all their former celeb- 
rity — they have cared neither for time nor tide. Observe, 
therefore, particularly in this Alameda, the Gaditanian walk, 
El piafar, about which every one has heard so much : it has 
been distinguished by Mrs. Romer, a competent judge, from the 
" affected wriggle of the French women, and the grenadier 
stride of the English, as a graceful swimming gait." The 
charm is that it is natural; and in being the true unsophisti- 
cated daughters of Eve and nature, the Spanish women have 



336 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

few rivals. As el pas so Castellano is the boast of the ambling 
steeds of Spain, so her pace is the pride of the Gaditana, or girl 
of Cadiz. At the same time some very nice and first rate 
judges have pronounced her gracia, or elegance, to be less dis- 
tinguished, menos fina, than that of the more high-bred Sevil- 
lana. Her meiieo, however, is considered by grave antiquarians 
to be the unchanged crissatura of Martial. By the way, aire is 
the term to be used in polite parlance for this undulating, ser- 
pentine action : the word meneo is only'permissible in the mouth 
of a Mayo. 

Barring these living objects of undeniable antiquarian and 
present interest, there is little else to be seen on this Alameda of 
Cadiz. Thence pass to the Puerto, del Mar, which for costume, 
color, and grouping is the spot for an artist. Here will be seen 
every variety of fish and female, from the mantilliad Senora, to 
the brisk Muchacha in her gay panuelo. The market is well 
supplied, and especially with the finny tribe. The ichthyophile 
should examine the curious varieties, which also struck the 
naturalists and gourmands of antiquity. (Strabo, hi. 214.) The 
fish of the storm-vexed Atlantic is superior to that of the lan- 
guid Mediterranean. The best are the San Pedro, or John 
Dory, our corruption from the Italian Janitore, so called because 
it is the fish which the Porter of Heaven caught with the tri- 
bute-money in its mouth ; the sole, Lenguado ; red mullet, Sal- 
monete; prawns, Camarones ; grey mullet, Baila ; the horse- 
mackerel, Cavalla; skait, Raia; scuttle-fish, Gibia ; a sort of 
tunny, Bonito ; whiting, Pescadilla; gurnet, Rubro ; hake, 
Pescada, and others not to be found in English kitchens or dic- 
tionaries : e. g. the Juvel, the Savalo, and the Mero, which lat- 
ter ranks among fish as the sheep among animals, en la tier r a el 
carnero, en la mar el mero. But El dorado, the lunated gilt 



DISH FOR A CARDINAL. 33 T 



head, so called from its golden eyes and tints, if eaten with 
tomato sauce, and lubricated with golden sherry, is a dish fit 
for a cardinal. The dog-fish, pintarojo, is a delicacy of the 
omnivorous lower classes. 

There are few things to be seen in this garrison town, or in 
This walk around the Rampart, except a few good pictures of 
Zurbarran in the new museo, and an unfinished work of Murillo, 
who died from the effects of a fall while he was painting the 
marriage of St. Catharine. There are so few things that alter 
in Spain, that little interest can be looked for in a century. 
Cadiz, however, has its " sea-girt walls," and peculiar charms in 
its women. Would that we could say as much for its men. The 
people, indeed, have honest hearts and vigorous arms, but, as in 
the eastern fable, a head is wanting to the body. Every day 
confirms the truth of the Duke's remark : "I really believe 
that there is not a man in the country who is capable of com- 
prehending, much less of conducting any great concern." 

" Adieu, fair Cadiz ! yea, a long adieu ! 

Who may forget how long thy walls have stood ? 
When all were changing, thou alone wert true, 
First to be free, and last to be subdued !" 

Childe Harold, Canto I. 85 

By crossing the bay of Cadiz in a small steamer that plies 
three times a day to the Port of Saint Mary's, we w r ere enabled 
to reach the residence of Mr. Campbell, the British Consul, 
who resided here in preference to Cadiz. After a pleasant 
chat under his hospitable roof, and a tea-drinking at his social 
board, which reminded us of true English comfort and its 
hospitable cheer, we started off for the Opera. Gemmia di 
Virgy was the piece performed that evening, the actors were 
excellent, the music unusally well executed by the orchestra 

15 



338 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

and choruses ; and the whole entertainment afforded us much 
pleasure, excepting the fact that the hero of the stage was a 
Moor "as black as the ace of spades." In one of the boxes 
near us, we were gratified to look on the faces of some fair 
Spanish girls, the Misses Carrio, the nieces of Peter Harmony, 
of New- York (since dead), whose sherry wines, the Amontil- 
lado and Harmony, were no less courted in Manhattan than the 
reputation of his immense wealth. It was very agreeable to be 
thus reminded of America by the medium of sherries and bright 
lustrous Spanish eyes. 

The Puerto, is one of the great towns of wine export, and 
vies with Xeres and San Lucar in extent of its bodegas, or 
wine-stores. 

Consul Campbell was very polite to us during our stay, and 
on the following morning his van and servant were placed at 
our disposal, in order to convey us to Xeres. Although the 
road thither was indifferent, the drive was pleasant, and the 
view from the intervening ridge La Buena Vista embraced a 
superb panorama of the bay of Cadiz. After a few hours we 
arrived at our journey's end, and, having put up at a miserable 
inn in the village, set out on a visit to the remarkable objects 
in the place. 

Xeres, or Jeres, termed Sherish Filistin by the Moors, 
because allotted to a tribe of Philistines, rises amid vine-clad 
slopes, studded with cottages and farm horses, with its white- 
washed Moorish towers, blue-domed Collegiate and huge Bode- 
gas, or wine-stores, looking like pent-houses for men-of-war at 
the Navy-yard. This straggling and ill-built Moorish city, with 
a population of about 34,000, retains parts of the walls and 
gates of the original old town. The suburbs, more regularly 
constructed, contain the houses of the wealthy wine-merchants, 



SHERRIS OF FALSTAFF. 339 

whose hospitality is as generous as their wines. Its Moorish 
alcazar near the public walk offers a good specimen of these 
turreted and walled palatial palaces, while the facade of the 
Church of San Miguel is elegant in the character of its Gothic 
details. Xeres, once renowned for its legends, is now cele- 
brated for its majos ; but these fancy-boys are considered raw 
and crude, compared with a bird of a finer feather — the majo 
fino — the rare and done-brown fancy-fellow of Seville, a descrip- 
tion of a genteel loafer as old as Martial. The Major Xerezano 
is seen in all his glory at the much-frequented fairs of May and 
August, and is also a great bull-fighter. His repartees are, 
however, flavored with Ahdalwcian salt, and his jaleos (jest) and 
jokes, rather too practical. Burlas de manos, burlas de Xerezanos. 

The quality of wine they drink is supposed to make these 
valiantes more boisterous, and occasionally more ferocious, than 
those of all other Andalucians : " for all this valor/ 7 as Falstaff 
says, " comes of Sherris. They are great sportsmen, and the 
shooting in the Marisma, especially of deer, wild-fowl, wood- 
cocks, is first rate. 

The growth of wine amounts to some 500,000 arrobas annu- 
ally ; this Moorish name and measure contains a quarter of a 
hundred weight; thirty go to a bota or butt, of which 32,698 
were made here in 1846, running from 8000 to 10,000 really 
fine. This wine was first known in England about the time of 
Henry VII. It became popular under Elizabeth, when those 
who, under Essex, sacked Cadiz, brought home the fashion of 
good "sherris sack." It is still called seco here, which is the 
old English seek, the French sec, a word used in contradistinc- 
tion to the sweet mafroisis. The Spaniards scarcely know 
sherry beyond its immediate vicinity ; it is, in fact, a foreign 
wine, and made and drunk by foreigners ; nor do Spaniards 



340 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

like its strength, and still less its high price. Thus, even at 
Granada, it is sold as a liqueur. At Seville, in the best houses, 
one glass only is handed round at dinner as the golpe medico, 
or chasse. The first class is called " Vino seco, fino, oloroso y 
generoso," and is very dear, costing half a dollar a bottle on the 
spot. Pure genuine sherry, from ten to twelve years old, is 
worth from fifty to eighty guineas per butt, in the bodega, and 
when freight, insurance, duty, and charges are added, will stand 
the importer 100 to 130 guineas in his cellar. A butt will run 
from 108 to 112 gallons, and the duty is 5s. 6d. per gallon. 
Such a butt will bottle about fifty-two dozen. 

The excellence of sherry wines is owing to the extreme care 
and scientific methods introduced by foreigners, who are chiefly 
French and Scotch. The great houses are Pedro Domecq, 
(whose London house is Buskin, Billiter Square,) Haurie, 
Pemartin, Gordon, Garvey, Bermudez, Beigbeder. The house 
of Beigbeder belongs to Mr. John David Gordon, English 
Yice-Consul, a gentleman whose high character, hospitality, 
and wines have long won him golden opinions. A Bodega, the 
Roman horrea, the wine-store or apotheca, is, unlike our cellars, 
always above ground. The interior is deliciously cool and sub- 
dued, as the heat and glare outside are carefully excluded ; 
here thousands of butts are piled up during the rearing and 
maturing processes. Sherry, when perfect, is made up from 
many different butts: the "entire" is, in truth, the result of 
Xerez grapes, but of many sorts and varieties of flavor. Thus 
one barrel corrects another, by addition or subtraction, until 
the proposed standard aggregate is produced. All this is 
managed by the Capitaz, or head man, who is usually a Mon- 
tanes from the Asturian mountains, and often becomes the real 
master of his nominal masters, whom he cheats, as well as the 



MADRE BUTTS OF SHERRY. 34 1 

grower. He passes this life of probation in tasting : he goes 
round the butts, marking each according to its character, cor- 
recting and improving at every successive visit. 

The callida jundura ought to unite fullness of body, a nutty 
flavor and aorma, dryness, absence from acidity, strength, 
spirituosity, and durability. Yery little brandy is necessary : 
the vivifying power of the unstinted sun of Andalucia imparting 
sufficient alcohol, which ranges from 20 to 23 per cent, in fine 
sherries, and only 12 in clarets and champagnes. Fine, pure 
old sherry is of a rich brown color. The new raw wines are 
paler; in order to flatter the tastes of some English, "pale 
old sherry" must be had, and the color is chemically discharged 
at the expense of the delicate aroma. The amontillado is so 
called from a peculiar, bitter-almond, dry flavor, somewhat like 
the wines of Montilla, near Cordova : it is much sought after, 
and is dear, as it is used in enriching poorer and sweetish wines. 
There is always a venerable butt that contains some Madre 
vino, or rich wine, by which young butts are reared as by 
mother's milk. The contents are very precious, and the barrels 
named after Nelsons, Wellingtons, kings, and heroes. The 
visitor is just allowed a sip, by way of bonne bouche. The 
sweet wines of the sherry grape are delicious. The best are the 
Moscadel, the Padro Ximenez, so called from a German vine- 
grower, and Pajarete; this term has nothing to do with the 
pajaros, or birds which pick the most lucious grapes, but simply 
is the name of the village where it was first made. 

The great Bodegas are the Lions of Xerez ; those of P. Do- 
mecq, or John D. Gordon, are the finest : the former gentleman 
has some pictures, but his best gallery is that of butts of sherry. 
There the whole process of making sherry will be explained, 
while all the varieties of grape and soil are carefully described. 



342 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 



RIDE TO GIBRALTAR. 

After spending two days at Xeres, we engaged one Ramon 
as a guide to conduct us on our way across the mountains of 
Ronda to Gibraltar. I shall never forget the courtesy of the 
two English officers who accompanied me on this occasion, nor 
cease to be grateful to the gallant Captain Dennis, who placed 
his servant at my disposal, causing him to procure for me a 
suitable saddle horse for the ride, that we were then about to 
undertake together. His friend and companion, Lieutenant 
Cannon, contributed no less to enliven the company by his 
pleasant stories and entertaining chat, while the animals were 
being saddled for our use. At nine we took leave of the jolly 
hostess of the posada, and shortly after the guide having 
announced that all things were ready for a start, we sallied out 
of the court-yard of the inn, and by a brilliant moonlight took 
the road in the direction of the Cartuja. Below Cariuja, 
once very rich in excellent vineyards and possessing the celebra- 
ted breeding grounds of Andalucian horses, the Guadalete rolls 
in its onward course to the sea. The golden grape which grows 
on its banks give it the classic name of Chrysos, and that which 
the Romans borrowed from the Greek, was changed by the 
Moors into the fair title of " the river of delight." With our 
energies fully aroused and sustained by the novelty of our jour- 
ney, we continued to ride the whole of the night, and until ten 
o'clock on the following morning, when we reached the dilapi- 
dated walls of Medina Sidonia. Slowly ascending the moun- 
tain on which it stands, for our horses wearily clambered over 
the rocky foot-path the side of which was lined by clumps of 
cactus and rubbles of mouldy stones, we at length arrived at 
the top of the hill, where this city of Sidon sparkled in the 



RIDE ACROSS TO TARTFA. 343 

bright sunshine of the morning like an ingot of silver on a 
nugget of gold. The sight of its brilliant limestone walls was 
painful to the eyes and still more distressing to the heart, as it 
mourned over the whited sepulchre which was then so full of 
decay. We were obliged to remain here in order to rest our 
horses and repose our limbs, which, after ten hours hard rid- 
ing, were in rather a straitened condition. After an excellent 
breakfast at the inn near the market-place, where we had a 
good view of the various costumes and strange faces of the 
most gipsy set of people in Spain, we retired to our rooms 
and slept away the remainder of the forenoon. 

However humble the aspect of this ruined town appeared, it 
gave the Ducal title to the descendants of Guzman el Buen, to 
whom all the lands between the Guadalete and Guadairo, were 
granted for his defence of Tarifa. The city was one of the 
strongholds of the family. Here the fascinating Leonora de 
Guzman, mistress of the chivalrous Alonzo XI., fled from the 
vengeance of Alonzo's widow, and her cruel son Don Pedro. 
Here again, Don Pedro, in 1361, imprisoned and put to death 
his ill-fated wife, Blanche, of Bourbon. She is the Mary Stu- 
art of Spanish ballads — beautiful and, like her, of suspected 
chastity ; her cruel execution cost Pedro his life and crown, as 
it furnished to France an ostensible reason for invading Spain, 
and placing the anti-English Henry of Frastamara, on the 
throne. So Medinatu — Shidunah the city of Sidon, thought 
by some to be the site of the Phoenician Asidon, although 
entered as a ruin was contemplated with a feeling of romance. 

Leaving Medina Sidonia, at five o'clock in the afternoon, we 
traveled far into the night before we gained an entrance into 
Casavieja, which, at that hour seemed so dark and gloomy that 
we preferred to continue on horseback all night, rather than to 



344 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

lodge within the precincts of so inhospitable a looking place. 
By keeping the elevated land-mark of Medinia Sidonia, in a 
southerly direction behind us, and retaining the points of the 
compass in our mind's eye, we were enabled by the aid of star- 
light to manage our wanderings during the night. To be sure, 
we came near losing our way on several occasions during this 
ramble, and once or twice so doubted the skill of our guide, 
that we were almost tempted to tell him, that we could feel our 
way in the dark better than he whom we had hired to conduct 
us. But apprehension guided to judgment, and laughing at 
our folly, we concluded it best to let Ramon have his own way, 
he having faithfully done his duty up to that hour. In fact, 
we continued to wander, and retraced our steps several times 
during the most difficult part of our journey, but still kept on, 
encouraging each other by talking and singing as we rode 
along. Nevertheless, all these efforts failed us successively 
until dawn; when, fortunately, just as we were about yielding 
to fatigue, disappointment, and despair, our guide espied a 
group of scrawny shade trees within an enclosure of scattered 
rocks. Ramon soon led us within the space discovered, and 
there, having dismounted, we tied our horses to the branches of 
the trees by their halters : we took off their saddles, and placing 
them on the ground for pillows, laid down to our first bivouac 
in Spain. We slept there one hour by our watch. We had 
so determined before we had lain down; for when daylight 
appeared we were rested and ready to start forward for Farifa 
and a breakfast. Soon after we had arisen we learned from a 
peasant that Fascine was the town to our right; and this infor- 
mation was sufficient to indicate the exact position of the party. 
Again we proceeded on our way, with the guide now resting 
on the leader's back for relief, and after having crossed the 



OLEANDER SCARLET FLOWERS. 345 

plain of Fascine we soon entered a pass in the Algecisasian moun- 
tains. From this point our journey became exceedingly pleas- 
ant and interesting, the road being bounded by groves of olive 
trees, and skirting along by the side of the mountain ranges, led 
by successive dips and rises through a valley which was redo- 
lent with the scarlet flowers of the rich oleander, growing here 
in the luxuriousness of its native beauty, and vieing with the 
lovely blue of heaven, and the laughter of the mountain rill to 
give life, loveliness and grace to one of the most beautiful scenes 
in the south of Spain. 

The country now became mostly lonely, unpeopled, and uncul- 
tivated, presenting a true picture of Spanish wilderness and 
sterility. The rich soil, under a vivifying sun, is now given up 
to the wild plant and insect ; earth and air teem with life. 
There is a melancholy grandeur in these solitudes where nature 
is busy at her mighty work of creation heedless of the absence 
or presence of the larger insect man. 

A mile inland is the lake, near which Faric, landing from 
Africa, 711, encountered Roderick, the last of the Goths. 
The action was decided near Xeres. This one battle gave 
Spain to the Moslem ; the secret of whose easy conquest lay in 
the civil dissensions among the Goths, and the aid the invaders 
obtained from the Jews, who were persecuted by the Gothic 
clergy. 

At the Yenta de Taibilla, a picturesque gorge studded with 
fragments of former Moslem bridges and causeways, led to the 
seashore. At the tower La PeJia del Cierro, Stag Rock, the 
Highar Eggel of the Moors, the magnificent African coast 
opened, showing its bold outlines from Cape Spartel to Mount 
Jabalis, the Hill of the apes. Our ride thence was almost 
always in sight or within hearing of the ocean, as it broke in 

15* 



346 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

white caps of foam against the rocks of the Spanish shore. 
After a brisk trot we arrived before the gates of TarifFa, and 
put up at the Posada, outside the walls. Here let us rest 
awhile for repose, and gaze on the magnificent panorama. 

A SKETCH. 

It is geologically certain that the two continents were 
once united. Hercules, (i. e. the Phoenicians,) is said to have 
cut a canal between them, as is now contemplated at the Isth- 
mus of Panama. The Moors have a tradition that it was the 
work of Alexander, and that he built a bridge across the open- 
ing : it was then very narrow, and has gradually widened until 
all farther increase was stopped by the high lands on each side. 

The Moors called this Strait — Bahr-z-zohak — i. e. the nar- 
row sea ; the Mediterranean being termed, Aahr-el-ahiad, the 
white sea. The length from Cape Spartel to Ceuta in Africa, 
and from Trafalgar to Europa Point in Spain, is about twelve 
leagues. The narrowest point is Tarifa. A constant current 
sets in from the Atlantic at the rate of two and a half miles 
per hour, and is perceptible 150 miles down to the Cape of the 
Cat ; hence it is scarcely possible to beat out in a north-west 
wind. Some have supposed the existence of an under-current 
to relieve the Mediterranean from this accession of water, in 
addition to all the waters from the Ebro to the Nile. Dr. 
Halley, however, has calculated that the quantity evaporated 
and licked up by the sun, is greater than the supply, and 
certainly the Mediterranean has receded to the east of the 
Peninsula. 



HEROIC SACRIFICE. 84t 



T ARI F A. 

Worthy of Froissart are the accounts of an eye-witness, 
telling of the cannon made at Damascus, which were used for 
the first time in Europe at the bloody battle of the Salado, 
when the chivalrous Alonzo overthrew the united forces of the 
King of Granada and the King of Fez, who made a last and 
desperate attempt to re-invade and re-conquer Spain. This 
victory paved the way for the final triumph of the Cross, as 
the Moors never recovered the blow. Between Tarifa and the 
Rock of the Stag, lies the plain which was steeped in the blood 
of that fearful strife. 

Tarifa, the most Moorish town in Andalucia, bears for arms 
its castle on waves, with a key at the window, and the motto, 
" Sed fuertes in la guerra," be gallant in fight. Like Calais, it 
was once a frontier key of great importance. Sancho el Bravo, 
took it in 1292; Alonzo Perez, when all others declined, offered 
to hold this post of danger for a year. The Moors beleaguered 
it, aided by the Infante Juan, a traitor brother of Sancho's, to 
whom Alonzo's eldest son, aged nine, had been entrusted pre- 
viously as a page. Juan now brought the boy under the walls, 
and threatened to kill him if his father would not surrender. 
Alonzo drew his dagger and threw it down, exclaiming, "I 
prefer honor without a son, to a son with dishonor." He 
retired, and the Prince caused the child to be put to death. 
A cry of horror ran through the Spanish battlements. Alonzo 
rushed forth, beheld his son's body, and returning to his child- 
less mother, calmly observed, " I feared that the Infidel had 
gained the city." The king likened him to Abraham, from this 
parental sacrifice, and honored him with the " canting " name, 



348 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

"El Bueno," the Good (Guzman, Gut Man, Good Man). He 
became the founder of the princely Dukes of Medina Sidonia, « 
now merged by marriage in the Yillafrancas. 

Quadrangular Tarifa with its narrow and tortuous streets, 
is enclosed by its Moorish walls. The Alemeda runs in a 
southerly direction between the town and the sea; and galley- 
slaves toil in the Alcazar, a genuine Moorish castle, lying at the 
east of the ramparts. No monument marks the scene of the 
murdered child, but the modern tower of Guzman, and the 
window from which the dagger was thrown, has been bricked 
up. The true "Lions" of Tarifa are the women, or las Tari- 
fenas, whose graceful walk and piercing glances, still attract. 
They continue to wear the mantilla in the Oriental fashion, 
concealing all the face but one eye, but that, it is true, is gene- 
rally a piercer. Next in danger to the tapadas, or brilliant 
eye-shots, were the bulls which used to be let loose in the 
streets, to the delight of the people at the windows, and horror 
of those who met the enraged animals in the streets. 

The crumbling walls of the city might be battered with its 
oranges, which, although the smallest, are beyond comparison 
the sweetest in Spain, but defended- by brave men, they have 
defied the ball and bomb. The real strength of Tarifa consists 
in the rocky island which projects into the sea, and on which 
a fortress is building. There is a good lighthouse, 135 feet 
high, visible for ten leagues, and a small sheltered bay. The 
castle commands the Straits under some circumstances, when 
ships are obliged to pass within range of the batteries, and 
vessels which do not hoist colors, are at once fired into. This 
happens frequently with merchantmen, and especially those 
coming from Gibraltar. Tarifa is destined by Spaniards to 
counterbalance the loss of the Rock. 



SUPERB COAST VIEW. 349 



The fortress is being built out of a tax levied on persons 
and things passing from Spain into Gibraltar: thus the Eng- 
lish are made to pay for their own annoyance. Tarifa, in war 
time, swarmed with gun-boats and privateers. "They in- 
flicted," says Southey, "greater loss on the trade of Great 
Britain, than all the fleets of the enemy, by cutting off ships 
becalmed in these capricious waters." A good frigate steamer 
at Gibraltar, in case of another war, will abate that nuisance. 
The walls are unfinished, the works destined for the building 
and supplies having to pass through Algeciras; hence the 
command is the best thing in Spain. Here discontented gene- 
rals, and unpaid regiments, are sent to refresh themselves. The 
governor receives the dues, and a little will stick to his fingers ; 
while everybody does a handsome business in facilitating the 
smuggling which they are ostensibly sent to prevent. Before 
you can examine the Castle of Guzman, or draw it, it is first 
necessary to obtain the permission from the governor, since the 
vicinity of Gibraltar, which has been made the hot-bed of revo- 
lutionists of all kinds, has rendered every Spanish garrison near 
it, almost as sensitive as the Phoenicians, who welcomed every 
stranger who pried about the Straits by throwing him into 
the sea. 

Having remained at the snug and cottage-like posada, until 
we had fully recovered our strength and refreshed our horses, 
we resumed our journey by passing along a mule tract which 
led over the mountains, thus leaving the town of Tarifa far 
beneath us to the right. 

This country road, as it may be termed, led us to the crest 
of the mountain by a rugged pathway, worn out by the beaten 
course of travel, and the ride from Tarifa to Algesiras was 
glorious, as it afforded us superb views along the whole line of 



350 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

the coasts of two Continents. While continuing our course, 
we were alternately changing the face of our landskips, as we 
wound round the ridge in its circuitous and serpentine turns, 
as every half mile onward brought within our sight views of 
splendid effects in the wildness and sublimity of the scenery. 
The wild forests through which the Guadalmeil boiled and 
leaped, was worthy of Salvator Rosa, while immense forests 
of mammouth cork trees, and aged olive trees, lent their 
shadowy arms to shield us from the sun. The accidental loss 
of two horse shoes, slackened our pace, and caused us to be 
detained at an inn, which crowned the last ridge of this chain 
of mountains, and there we caught our first view of Gibraltar 
and its beautiful bay, seen through the leafy vistas, and the 
bleeding branches of the stripped cork-trees, fringed with a 
most delicate fern. How sublimely solemn that bristling cita- 
del of war loomed forth, as though a mountain had been set 
adrift from the continent, it seemed connected only by a thin 
ribband of sand with the mainland. The grand Rock crouches 
like the British Lion, the sentinel and master of the Medi- 
terranean. 

ALGECIRAS. 

Towards dark we found we had advanced as far as Alge- 
ciras : here we concluded to pass the night, that we might 
enter Gibraltar in the morning. 

Algeciras, with its alameda and bull-pit, lies in a pleasant 
nook, and with its modern rectangular, common-place appear- 
ance, has risen like a phcenix, having been rebuilt in 1760 by 
Charles III., to be a hornet's nest for Gibraltar ; and such it 
now is, swarming with privateers in war, and with coast-guards 
and preventive-service cutters in peace. 



A MOST NOTED SIEGE. 351 



It retains but a remnant of its former importance, when, 
being the Moor's key to Spain, the king of Spain was also king 
of Algeciras. It was taken by the gallant Alonzo XI. in 
1344, after a siege of twenty months, in which crusaders from 
all Christendom participated. It was the most noticeable siege 
of the age ; and forty years afterwards, Chaucer, describing a 
true knight, mentions his having been at " Algecir," as in our 
time one might be described as a Waterloo or a Trafalgar man. 
The chivalrous Edward III. contemplated coming in person to 
assist Alonzo, a monarch after his own heart. The chronicles 
of Alonzo give Froissart details of the gallant behavior of the 
English under the Earls of Derby and Salisbury, and the selfish 
misconduct of the French under Gaston de Foix, who kept 
aloof at the critical moment when they were most needed. 
The want to which every one in the Spanish camp was reduced, 
gives occasion for some terrific drawing. Alonzo destroyed the 
Moorish town and fortifications. 

There is very little inter-communication between Algeciras 
and Gibraltar ; the former is the naval and military position 
whence the latter is watched ; and the foreigner } s possession of 
Gibraltar rankles deeply, as well it may. In the tenacious 
memory of Spain it is hardly yet a fait accomple. Here are 
the head quarters of the Spanish revenue cutters, which prowl 
about the bay, and often cut out smugglers even from under 
the guns of the batteries. 

Daring the summer, the cool stone houses of Algeciras are 
infinitely better suited to the climate than the stuffy dwellings 
on the arid rock. 

The distance thence to Gibraltar is merely a pleasant hour's 
ride or sail. The bay is about five miles across by sea, and ten 
round by land. 



352 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 



GIBRALTAR. 

Quite early the next morning we rode over the coast road, 
which is intersected by the rivers Quadaranque and Palmones. 
On crossing the former, the eminence of El Rocadilla appeared, 
where there is now a farm, and corn grows where once was the 
ancient Carteia. 

At every step in advance Spain recedes ; parties of reckless 
subalterns gallop over the sands on crop-tailed hacks, halloo- 
ing to terriers, and cracking hunting-whips — animals, instru- 
ments, and occupations utterly unknown to Iberia. Then 
appear red-faced slouching pedestrians in short black gaiters, 
walking " into Spain," as they call it, where none but long and 
yellow ones are worn : then the nursery-maids, men, women, and 
everything, vividly recall England and the English. Spain 
vanishes, and England reappears after passing the " Lines/' as 
the frontier boundaries are called. The civil and military 
establishments of Spain, everywhere rather out of elbows, are 
nowhere more so than here, where they provoke the most odious 
comparisons. The miserable hovels are the fit lair of hungry 
bribe-taking officials, who exist on the crumbs of " the Rock," 
one broadside from which would sweep everything from the face 
of the earth. These " Lines" were once most formidable, as 
Philip Y. erected here, in 1130, two superb forts, now heaps 
of ruins ; one was called after his tutelar saint, Felipe, the 
other after Santa Barbara, the patroness of Spanish artillery; 



SCARECROW SENTINELS. 353 

they were so strong, that when the French advanced in the last 
war, the modern Spaniards, unable even to destroy them, called 
in the aid of our engineers under Colonel Harding, by whom 
they were effectually dismantled : this is at least a fait accompli, 
and they never ought to be allowed to be rebuilt, since to 
raise works before a fortress is a declaration of war ; and 
as Buonaparte's announced intention was to take Gibraltar, 
Sir Colin Campbell was perfectly justified in clearing them 
away, even without the Spaniards' permission. 

Beyond these lines are rows of sentry boxes, which enkennel 
the gaunt Spanish sentinels, who guard their frontier on the 
espanta lobos, or scarecrow principle. A narrow flat strip of 
sand called the " neutral ground," separates the Bock from the 
mainland ; hence, seen from a distance, it seems an island, as it 
undoubtedly once was. The barren, cinder-looking, sunburnt 
mass is no unfit sample of tawny Spain, while the rope-of-sand 
connection is a symbol of the disunion, long the inherent weak- 
ness of the unamalgamating component items of Iberia. 

Crossing, however, that strip, and all is changed, as if by 
magic, into the order, preparation, organization, discipline, 
wealth, honor and power of the United Kingdom — of Britannia, 
the Pallas, the armed wisdom of Europe. The north side of 
Gibraltar rises bluffly, and bristles with artillery: the dotted 
port holes of the batteries, excavated in the rock, are called by 
the Spaniards il los dientes de la vieja" the grinders of this stern 
old Cerberus. The town is situated on a shelving ledge to the 
west. As we approach, the defences are multiplied : the cause- 
way is carried over a marsh called " the inundation," which can 
be instanteously laid under water ; every bastion is defended by 
another ; a ready-shotted gun stands out from each embrasure, 
pregnant with death, — a prospect not altogether pleasant to 



354 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

the stranger, who hurries on for fear of an accident. At every 
turn a well-appointed, well-fed sentinel indicates a watchfulness 
which defies surprise. We passed on through a barrack teem- 
ing with soldiers' wives and children, a perfect rabbit warren 
when compared to the conventual celibacy of a Spanish 
" quartel." 

The inundation cleverly over, and the draw-bridge passed on 
a slow trot, we at last found our way into the city. I put up 
at " Griffith's." The hospitality of the Rock is unbounded, and, 
perhaps, the endless dinnering is the greatest change from the 
hungry and thirsty Spain. As there are generally five regi- 
ments in garrison, the messes are on a grand scale. But death 
is in the pot, and a tendency to fever and inflammation is 
induced by carrying the domestics and gastronomies of cool 
damp England to this arid and torrid "Rock." This garrison 
is one of the strictest in the world, and therefore a capital 
school for young officers to learn their duty: everything is on 
the alert ; the gates are shut at sunset and not opened until 
sunrise, and after midnight civilians are obliged to carry a lan- 
tern. These rules do not apply to officers. No foreigner can 
reside on the Rock without some consul or householder becom- 
ing his surety and responsible for his conduct. These precau- 
tions are absolutely necessary, as this place can never be taken 
except by treason, and many are those who, under a species of 
cordial understanding, conceal a deadly arriere pensee of hatred. 
Gibraltar is excessively displeasing to all French tourists : they 
abuse the red jackets, guns, nursery maids, and even the mon- 
keys : ever perfidious, they say, is the ambitious aggression of 
England. The truth simply is, that this key of their lake is too 
strong, and can J t be taken by their fleets and armies. 

The bay is formed by two headlands, by Eurojpa Point on 



PILLARS OF HERCULES. 355 

the Rock, and by Cahrita in Spain. Its greatest width from 
east to west, is five miles, its greatest length from north to 
south about eight : the depth in the centre exceeds one hun- 
dred fathoms. The anchorage is not, however, very good, and 
the bay is open and much exposed, especially to the south-west 
winds ; then the vessels tug at their cables like impatient 
horses, and, when they do break loose, get stranded. The old 
mole offers a sort of protection to . small craft : notwithstanding 
the commerce that is carried on, there are few of its appliances, 
quays, wharfs, docks, and warehouses, for even the English 
seem paralyzed in this climate of Spain. The tide rises about 
four feet. The Rock consists principally of grey limestone 
and marble ; the highest point is about 1,500 feet, the circum- 
ference about seven miles, the length from north to south about 
three. It has been uplifted at a comparatively recent epoch, as 
a sea-beach exists 450 feet above the water's level. It was 
well known to the ancients, but never inhabited. The Phoeni- 
cians called it Alube. Calpe was the European, and Abyla 
(the rock of Abel, the "lofty") the African pillar of Hercules, 
the ne plus ultra land and sea marks of jealous Phoenician 
monopoly: here, in the words of Ariosto, was the goal beyond 
which strangers never were permitted to navigate, la meta que 
pose ai primi naviganti Ercole invitto. The Spanish name is 
Cabo de Bullones, Cape of Knobs. Be the name what it may, 
the high rocky fronts of each continent remain the two pillars 
of Hercules : what they originally were was an unsettled ques- 
tion in Strabo's time (iii. 258), and now may be left in peace. 

Gibraltar is now a bright pearl in the Ocean Queen's crown. 
It is, as Burke said, "a post of power, a post of superiority, of 
connection, of commerce ; one which makes us invaluable to 
our friends, and dreadful to our enemies." Its importance, as a 



356 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

depot for coal, is increased since steam navigation. Subse- 
quently to the storming of Acre, new batteries have been 
erected to meet this new mode of warfare. Sir John Jones was 
sent out in 1840, and under his direction tremendous bastions 
have been made at Europa Point, Ragged Staff, and near the 
Alameda ; while heavier guns have been mounted on the mole 
and elsewhere. Nor need it be feared that the bastions and 
example of Boyd will ever want an imitator in sceculos scecw- 
lorum. 

Having become fully at home at Gibraltar, let us take a 
walk to the garrison library in the city, and there, seated in an 
easy chair, with the sweet bay and African headland before us, 
read through a clever description of the "Rock." 

Gibraltar is said to contain between 15,000 and 20,000 
inhabitants, exclusive of the military. In daytime it looks more 
peopled than it really is, from the number of sailors on shore, 
and Spaniards who go out at "gun-fire. The differences of 
nations and costumes are very curious : it is a motley masque- 
rade, held in this half-way house between Europe, Asia, and 
Africa, where every man appears in his own dress and speaks 
his own language. Civilization and barbarism clash. The 
Cockney, newly imported in a week, per steamer from Lon- 
don, is reading this \ Handbook ' alongside of a black date-mer- 
chant from the borders of the deserts of Timbuctoo, and each 
staring at and despising his nondescript neighbor. It is a 
Babel of languages, and nothing can be more amusing than the 
market-places. Of foreigners, the Jews, who are always out of 
doors, are the dirtiest ; the Moors the cleanest and best 
behaved: the Ronda smuggler the most picturesque. The 
houses, the rent of which is very dear, are built on the stuffy 
Wapping principle, with a Genoese exterior ; all is brick and 



MONKEY& THE OLDEST INHABITANTS. 357 

plaster and wood-work, cribbed and confined, and filled with 
curtains and carpets, on purpose to breed vermin and fever in 
this semi- African hotbed ; they are calculated to let in the 
enemy, heat, and are fit only for salamanders and " scorpions," 
as those born on the Rock are called. The monkeys, in fact, 
are the oldest and wisest denizens of the Rock ; they live cool 
and comfortable on the sea-blown cliffs. The narrow streets 
are worthy of these nut-shell houses ; they are, except the main 
street, ycleped " lanes," e. g. y Bomb-house Lane and Horse- 
barrack Lane. Few genuine Moro-Peninsula towns have any 
streets ; the honesty of England scorns the exaggerations of the 
Spanish Calles, and calls things here by their right names. 

The " Main, or Waterport Street," the aorto of Gibraltar, 
is the antithesis of a Spanish town. Lions and Britannias dan- 
gle over innumerable pot-houses, the foreign names of whose 
proprietors combine strangely with the Queen's English. 
" Manuel Ximenez — lodgings and neat liquors." In these 
signs, and in the surer signs of bloated faces, we see with sorrow 
that we have passed from a land of sobriety into a den of gin 
and intemperance : every thing and body is in motion ; there is 
no quiet, no repose ; all is hurry and scurry, for time is money, 
and Mammon is the god of Gib., as the name is vulgarized, 
according to the practice of abbreviators and conquerors of 
" Boney." The entire commerce of the Peninsula seems con- 
densed into this microcosmos, where all creeds and nations 
meet. 

Gibraltar is a free port in the full extent of the term. 
There are no custom-houses, no odious searchings of luggage; 
almost everything is alike free to be imported or exported. 
Accordingly, the barren Rock, which in itself produces nothing 
and consumes everything, is admirably supplied. This ready- 



358 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

money market infuses life into the Spanish vicinity, which 
exists by furnishing vegetables and other articles of consump- 
tion: the beef, which is not a thing of Spain, comes from 
Barbary. Gibraltar is very dear, especially house-rent, wages, 
and labor of all kinds. It is a dull place of residence to 
those who are neither merchants nor military. The climate is 
peculiarly fatal to children during early dentition; otherwise it 
is healthy. It is, however, extremely disagreeable during the 
prevalence of the easterly winds, when a misty vapor hangs 
over the sumit of the Rock, and the nerves of man and beast 
are affected. 

The Gibraltar fever, about which doctors have disagreed so 
much, the patients dying in the meanwhile, como chinches, is 
most probably endemic; it is nurtured in Hebrew dirt, fed by 
want of circulation of air and offensive sewers at low tide. 
It is called into fatal activity by some autumnal atmospherical 
peculiarity. The average visitation is about every twelve years. 
The quarantine regulations, especially as regards ships coming 
from the Havana and Alexandria, are severe: they are under 
the control of the captain of the port. There is an excellent 
civil hospital here, arranged in 1815 by General Don, in which 
Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Jews have their wards 
separate, like their creeds. 

Gibraltar was made a free port by Queen Anne; and the 
sooner some change is made the better, for the "Rock," like 
Algeria, is a refuge for destitute scamps, and the asylum of 
people of all nations who expatriate themselves for their 
country's good. Here revolutions are plotted against friendly 
Spain; here her revenue is defrauded by smugglers, and par- 
ticularly by alien cigar-makers, who thus interfere with the only 
active manufacture of Spain. 



MONKEY WITH NO TAILS. 359 

Gibraltar is the grand depot for English goods, especially 
cottons, which are smuggled into Spain, along the whole coast 
from Cadiz to Benidorme, to the great benefit of the Spanish 
authorities, placed nominally to prevent what they encourage. 
The south of Spain is thus supplied with many more wares 
than it is enabled to purchase, nor would any treaty of com- 
merce much increase the consumption. 

The "Rock," in religious toleration, or rather indifference, is 
again the antithesis of Spain. Here all creeds are free, and all 
agree in exclusive money-worship. 

The military traveler will, of course, examine the defences 
and the "Guards." He may begin at "Land Port," and walk 
to the head of the Devil's Tongue Battery. 

The surface of the Rock, bare and tawny in summer, starts 
into verdure with the spring and autumnal rains, which call the 
seeds into life; more than 400 plants flourish on these soilless 
crags. Patridges and rabbits abound and are never shot at. 
The real lions of " Gib." are the apes, los monos, for which 
Solomon sent to Tarshish (1 Kings x. 22). They haunt the 
highest points, and are active as the chamois; like delicate 
dandies, they are seldom seen except when a Levanter, or east 
wind, affecting their nerves, drives them to the west end. 
These exquisites have no tails, and are very harmless. There 
is generally one, a larger and the most respectable, who takes 
the command, and is called the "town-major." These monkeys 
rob the gardens when they can, otherwise they live on the 
sweet roots of the Palmita ; for them also there is a reli- 
gious toleration, aud they are never molested : but such is the 
principle of English colonization, ne quieta mover e. We do 
not intend to denationalize the aborigines, whether men or 
monkeys. 



360 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

Monsieur Bory de St. Vincent, speculatiag con amore on 
"ces singes," has a notion that men also came from Africa into 
Spain, and hence into France. Now, as far as Spain is con- 
cerned, the monkeys are confined to this rock. 

The extreme end of the Rock is called "Europa Point ;" 
here, under the Spaniards, was a chapel dedicated to la Virgen 
de Eurojpa, the lamp of whose shrine served also as a beacon 
to mariners; thus quite supplanting the Yenus of the ancients. 
Now a new Protestant lighthouse and batteries have been 
erected: on the road thither are some charming glens, filled 
with villas and gardens; albeit these pretty Bures in Marte, 
savor more of the Cockney then Hercules. Pound to the east, 
is the cool summer pavilion of the governor, nestled under 
beetling cliffs; below is a cave tunnelled by the waves: beyond 
this the Pock cannot be passed, as the cliffs rise like walls out 
of the sea. This side is an entire contrast to the other: all 
here is solitude and inaccessibility, and Nature has reared her 
own impregnable bastions: an excursion round in a boat should 
be made to Catalan Bay. Returning from this extreme point, 
visit St. Michael's Cave, some half way up the Rock; here 
affairs of honor of the garrison are, or used to be, frequently 
settled. The interior of this extraordinary cavern is seen to 
greatest advantage when illuminated with blue lights : after 
this, visit the Moorish water-tanks, which have offered both a 
model and example to ourselves. The naval commissioner's 
house, on this slope, long the head-quarters of jobbing, is the 
perfection of a Mediterranean villa. Among the many caverns 
of this Calpe, or caved mountain, is that called " Beefsteak 
Cave," above the flats of Europa. Nomenclature assuredly 
marks national character, and this savors more of Monsieur 
Foy's beef-fed Briton, than of the hungry, religious Spaniard, 



-THE FOLLY. 361 



whose artillery tank at Brewer's barracks below, is still called 
"Nuns' Well." 

Another morning may be given to visiting the galleries and 
heights: first, ascend to the castle, which is one of the oldest 
Moorish buildings in Spain, having been erected in 125 (?) by 
Abu Abul Hajez, as the Arabic inscription over the south gate 
records. The Torre Mocha, or Torre de Omenaje, is riddled 
with shot-marks, the honorable scars of the siege: near this the 
" galleries " are entered, which are tunnelled in tiers along the 
north front; the gold of England has been lavished to put iron 
into the bowels of the earth. These batteries are more a show 
of terror than a reality: they are too high, and soon fill with 
smoke when the cannon are fired off; at the extremity are 
magnificent saloons, that of Lord Cornwallis and the " Hall of 
St. George," where immortal Xelson was feasted. 

Yisit next "Willis' Battery;" the flats which overhang the 
precipice were once called el Salto del Lobo, the Wolf's Leap: 
then ascend to the "Rock gun," placed on the north of the 
three points; the central is the " signal-post :" here, at sunrise 
and sunset, is fired a gun, which, "booming slow with sullen 
roar," speaks a language perfectly understood on both sides of 
the Straits. The signal-house, under Spanish rule, called el 
Hacho, the torch, because here were lighted the beacons in 
case of danger: near it is la Sliletta, the little chair, to which 
formerly a narrow path led from Catalan Bay: it was de- 
stroyed to prevent surprises, as Gibraltar was once nearly 
retaken by a party of Spaniards, who crept up during the 
night by this Senda del Pastor ; they failed from being un- 
supported by their friends at the Lines, who never arrived at 
the moment of danger; and when the English scaled the hill, 
the assailants were unprovided even with ammunition. The 

16 



362 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

south point of the Rock is called O'Hara's Tower, or Folly, 
having been built by that intelligent officer, to watch the 
movements of the Spanish fleet at Cadiz; it was soon after- 
wards struck by lightning, which completed its inutility. 

This view is magnificent; it is indeed the sentinel watch- 
tower of the Mediterranean, the battle-sea of Europe, to visit 
whose shores must ever, as Johnson says, be the first object of 
travel. Descending zig-zag, admirably engineered roads, chiefly 
the work of General Boyd, the views are delicious, while the 
browsing wild goats form foregrounds fit for Claude Lorraine. 
The sandy strip, or neutral ground, has a cricket-ground and a 
race-course, cosas de Inglctarra : passing the Devil's Tower, an 
ancient barbican, is an approach to Catalan Bay. 

Xone should omit to cross the Straits, and just set foot on 
Africa; the contrast not less striking than passing from Dover 
to Calais. The excursion into Barbary is both easy and in- 
teresting. The partridge shooting and wild-boar hunting, near 
Tetuan are excellent. 

There is no danger or difficulty in this interesting African 
trip. The Spaniards despise the Moors: being utterly ignorant 
of their real condition, they fancy Tetuan to be a wilderness of 
monkeys; hence the proverb, Sefue a Tetuan para pillar monos. 
The old leaven of mutual hatred and ignorance remains, and 
there is no love lost on either side. 

Having spent three entire clays at the Rock, our time was 
engrossed between the polite attentions of Captain Dennis and 
Lieutenant Cannon. We dined alternately at the artillery and 
engineers — the mess always affording a better dinner and more 
agreeable society than the " Inn." During our stay every 
attention was bestowed upon us by these agreeable officers, 
whose conduct, throughout the whole period that I was with 



EPIC POETRY IN STEAMSHIP. 363 

them, was, towards me, rather that of brothers than stran- 
gers. On the afternoon of the third day I took a boat from 
the sea-landing, and crossed over to the steamer which was 
anchored on the other side of the bay near Algeciras. This 
vessel was of the line of the regular packets, and had adver- 
tised to sail from Gibraltar to Malaga on the same evening. 
We left the port of Gibraltar about sunset, and the course of 
the steamer was nearly over the spot where lies the wreck of 
the government steamship Missouri. The magnificent sea coast 
was visible as long as the twilight lasted. It was a brilliant 
sight at night, to watch the stars from the deck of the flying 
ship ; and as the light winds blew the plumes of violet-colored 
flames from the smoke pipes of the " Gaditana," they seemed 
like tongues of fire issuing from the mouth of a sea dragon, 
plowing its way through the deep. Oh, Heaven ! it is a splen- 
did sight to feel the presence of Divinity upon the face of the 
waters, when the stars shine with all their constellations, and 
no thought fills that solitude but the glory of His Majesty, and 
no pulse is felt but the throbs of your own heart and the heav- 
ings of mighty engines. 

Who hath not thought, then, of God's great power in the 
steam engine — the sea Leviathan? We can never read Job 
without feeling the force of the sublime analogy of the forty-first 
chapter, from the fourteenth to the twenty-second : For verily 
he maketh the deep to boil like a pot ; he maketh the sea like 
a pot of ointment. He maketh a path to shine after him : one 
would think the deep to be hoary. 

At one o'clock I retired to rest, fully inspired with the 
beauty of that splendid night, and in our dreams we enjoyed 
visions only of the oleander fringed mountain streams, those 
"gentle rivers with willowed shore " of Percy, which would have 



364 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

been torrents and rocky barriers, had we taken the land route, 
and passed by the rocky bridle-path over the sandy trochas 
of Serrania. 

There was a memory also of the fetid waters of the Hedionda 
on the coast, which we had escaped — a hygeian spring offensive 
to the nose and palate, but pleasant to the stomach; the smell 
and taste of which, according to local legends, were attributed 
to the farewell sighs of a water-devil, who, on being expelled 
by Santiago, evaporated, like a dying attorney, with a sul- 
phurous twang. 

On that night, there were also some sad recollections in the 
ballads of Spain about the "Rio Verde," on the banks of which 
river Alonzo de Aguilar, with the flower of the Andalucian 
chivalry, was waylaid and murdered by the cruel El Feri of 
Benastapar. Their unburied bones bleaching the plain, or 
bodies left as a prey to the vulture, might have harrowed our 
minds or disturbed our slumbers, had we not recollected that 
the Iberians believed that the souls of those whose bodies 
were thus exposed were transported at once to heaven. 

Nor did Marbella's pretty town and pretty name delight our 
sight, in consequence of this sea transit, rising amidst its groves 
and gardens, backed by the verdant hills of the Sierra Blanca, 
Isabella is said to have exclaimed, " Que mar tan bella /" 
Marbella is frail and fair, and, like Potiphar's wife, is said to 
steal raiment. 

" Marbella es bella, no entres en ella; 
Quien entra con capa, sale sin ella." 

U Marbella is pretty, don't enter in there ; 
Who comes with a coat on, will part with it there." 

Here Caesar, March It, 47 a.c, defeated the sons of Pom- 



LAST OF BATTLES." 365 



pey: this, the "last of battles/ 7 left the conquerer without 
a rival, and gave the world to one master (Floras, iv. 2, 82; 
Lucan, 'Phar.' i. 40.) Caesar arrived from Rome in twenty- 
four days (Suet, in Yit. 56.) The first news of his coming was 
conveyed both to his own troops and to the enemy by his 
actual arrival (Hirt. 'B. H.' 29.) Hirtius, a friend of 
Caesar's, describes the plain, and the bright sun, which shone 
out as if the gods had made it a day for triumph, like Le Soleil 
d J Austerlitz. He makes the best of the event, and enumerates 
the number of the slain, the prisoners, and the captured stand- 
ards, but Florus gives those details which the conqueror con- 
cealed. The countenance of Caesar, which used to brighten 
at the trumpet-sound, was overcast; a silence came over the 
contending armies, who knew how important was the hazard 
of the cast. The veterans, flushed with fourteen years of 
victory, wavered, and Caesar himself for a moment despaired 
and meditated suicide. (Suet, in Yit. 36.) He flung himself 
from his horse, and cast off his helmet that he might be known 
(App. 'B. G! ii. 804): the day was won, not by the soldiers, 
but by the general. (Yell. Pat. ii. 55.) The conqueror then 
remarked that previously he had always fought for victory, 
but then for his very life. 30,000 of the enemy were slain, 
and a rampart of dead bodies was raised around Munda, for 
want of gabions. (App. loc. cit.) Caesar then cut down a 
forest for palisadoes, leaving a single palm standing, an omen 
and record of victory. 

We made up for the loss of these interesting localities on 
the coast, by a fine sail throughout the night, and on the 
following morning gladly hailed the salubrious shores of the 
approaching Malaga. 



366 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 



MALAGA. 

Well may the poet sing- 

" Malaga la hechicera, 
La del eternal primavera. 
La que bana dulce el mar 
Entre jasmin y azahar.'* 

" Malaga, the healing, 
Ever spring is thy clime ; 

The sea bathes thee, stealing 
Through jessmin and lime.' , 

Those whose lungs are affected will find the climate of 
Malaga superior to any place in Italy or Spain. Winter is 
quite unknown here ; open to the south and the sea, the city is 
sheltered from the north and east by the mountains. In summer 
the climate is almost tropical, coffee, cocoa, cotton plants, and 
the sugar-cane thrive here, and the Xermes cochenilla is reared 
on the Cactus opuntea in the botanical gardens. 

Malaga, the chief port of Granada, is admirable in its posi- 
tion on the Guadalmedina, or " river of the city," which divides 
it from the suburbs of the Penchal (from the Perch of the 
fishermen") and La Trinidad. This river, which never had a 
name of its own, is a mere brook in summer, but a devastating 
torrent in winter. At once the bane and antidote of the city, 
the deposits block up the harbor, while, like a Hercules, it 
cleanses away the accumulations of filth, to which the inhabi- 
tants are strangely indifferent. 



ALEMEDA WITH FLOWERS. 361 

Like Cadiz, its antiquity is immemorial, and the judgment 
shown in the selection of the site of Phoenician Malaga, is 
evidenced by a commercial existence and prosperity of 3000 
years. Malakah was a city, so much after the Moor's own 
heart, that Basis describes it as a paradise on earth. 

Being a purely commercial town, and its ■ business raisin- 
packing and sw r eet wine, it has little to interest the stranger 
except its views from the noble old Moorish castle on the " hill 
of the Pharos," and the Church of Santiago, the facade of 
which stands between two towers ; one incomplete, and the 
other drawn out like a telescope, with a pepper-box dome. 

The Alemeda, or Public Walk, is delicious, having an Italian 
look, the houses built around it being the best in Malaga. 
Here you may see the Malaguenas, who are muy halaquenas, 
very bewitching. The walk is full of flowers and water. The 
marble fountain, with groups of female figures, somewhat too 
undressed for Spanish propriety, was at Genoa, and given by 
that republic to Charles V. 

On the beach below the Carmen convent, in the Playas de 
San Andres, Torrijos and some fifty of his confederates were 
shot by Moreno, December 11, 1831, as rebels and traitors; 
now, in the changes and chances of Spain, they are honored as 
martyrs of liberty, and an obelisk has recently been erected in 
a plaza, with their names and laurel crowns. They were put to 
death without even the form of trial. This being in Spain quite 
a matter of course, the affair created little sensation beyond 
just the immediate neighborhood, and would forthwith have 
been forgotten among other treacheries, bloodsheddings, and 
Gosas de Espana, had not an Englishman, Mr. Boyd, suffered 
among them, w T hich was taken up by the London press, 
who reasoned remarkably well, barring the slight mistake of 



S68 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

confounding Spanish law with English ; his was the first body 
interred in the new Protestant burial-ground. The man of 
blood, Moreno, who began his career at the massacres of the 
French in "Valencia, 1808, lured Torrijos into the trap, cor- 
responding with him under the name of Viriatus, and pretend- 
ing also to be discontented ; rewarded by being made Captain- 
General of Granada by Ferdinand VII., he was disgraced by 
Christina in 1832, when she wished to make for herself a liberal 
party. He then became a Carlist, and was murdered at Urdax 
by his soldiers, after the traitorous convention of Maroto at 
Vergara. Kec lex est justior ulla, quarn necis artifices arte 
perire sua. There is no law more just, than that the inven- 
tors of death should first perish by their own invention. 

Malaga, since the death of Ferdinand VII., has been won- 
derfully changed and improved ; it is now a most flourishing 
seaport, trading with every quarter of the globe, and is adding 
to the rich and certain produce of a bountiful nature the more 
doubtful wares of art. It is mining and factory mad just now ; 
iron-foundries, soap, fabrics, and cotton-mills are fast rising. 
The chief impulse was given by a millionaire speculator named 
Manuel Augustin Heredia, who died August 14, 1846, from joy 
at the safe arrival of a richly-freighted argosy : the tall smoking 
chimneys, transported from Manchester, look odd under this 
azure sky. The fear is that the Malagenians, whose true 
wealth lies in the fruits of the earth's surface, may waste their 
industry in pursuit of shadows. 

There is an art engaged in at this port, of making painted 
terra-cotta images of majos, contrabandists, and local costumes, 
which is peculiar. 

Jose Cubero seems to have succeeded to the reputation of 
Leon, who was quite an artist in the business, having left 



MALAGA CLAY FIGURES. 3$9 

behind him no superior in the manipulation of these pretty 
little images in clay, so very pliable in the native soil but not 
easily broken when baked. 

WINES AND FRUITS. 

Wine and fruit are the real staples, not lead and iron. The 
sweet Muscatel wines are well known; they are the "moun- 
tains " of our ancestors, and grow for leagues on the vine-clad 
heights which slope down to the sea. The richest are called 
Las Lagrimas, like the Lachrymce Christi of Xaples, and are the 
ruby tears which drop from the grape without pressure. The 
making the dry wines was first introduced by an Englishman 
named Murphy ; they are much more agreeable and wholesome 
than the vile San Lucar stuff. A butt is worth <£10. About 
40,000 are made, of which 30,000 are sent to America and 
England, and sold as " genuine pale sherry." The other 
exports are oil, figs, orange-peel for making curacoa, almonds, 
and raisins ; for the latter the Muscatel and Uva iarga grapes 
are used, and these Bacchus-beloved hills are one vineyard 
down to Adra. The green grape is exported to England in 
jars, in the exact amphorae seen at Pompeii ; these are the 
Ollares of Martial, (vii. 20.) The raisins, so common in Pales- 
tine, (1 Sam. xxv. 18 ; xxx. 12,) were first made here by the 
Phoenicians, and after a lapse of many thousand years are still 
the finest in Spain. A million boxes are annually exported ; 
those anxious to see the process may visit the store of Mr. 
Clements, one of the greatest of the merchants in this line. 
They are prepared by cutting the stalk partly through, and 
letting the grape dry in the sun. The finest are the " Mus- 
catels," and the next the " Blooms;" these are cured in the 

* 16 



370 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

same way, being only varieties of grapes. The commoner sorts 
are called Lezias, from being dipped in a ley made of. burnt 
vine-tendrils. The late grapes, u quae de tardis servantur vitibus 
uvae" (Mart. i. 44), are, as in Martial's time, hung up in fes- 
toons in the cottages of the peasants, and thence are called 
Colgaderas. The Spaniards have also preserved the unchanged 
Roman name, Pasa. Uva passa pensilis (Plaut. 'Pceii.' i. 2, 
99). The vineyards in the wine-making districts of Spain are 
seldom enclosed with any fence ; they are left open to the 
passer-by : when the grapes begin to ripen, in those fields near 
a roadside, temporary sheds and awnings are run up, or huts 
built with reeds and boughs, in which the Vinadero, a watchman, 
is placed, who creeps in and out with his gun. These are the 
Oriental " Booths which the keeper maketh," Job xxvii. 18 : the 
"lodges in a garden of cucumbers," Isaiah i. 8. The guard 
rushes out like a fierce dog at all who pick and steal, and is the 
subject of vast abuse from the baffled wayfaring Spaniards, who 
swear that the grapes are sour, and he is a puniatero; nor is 
the guardian slow in returning his cornudos and other ancient 
and classical compliments ; but Ninas y vinos son malas de 
guardar ; y miedo guar da la vina, y no el vinadero. Another 
fruit abounds at Malaga, the Batata, or sweet potato, the Con- 
volvulus Batastas of Linnaeus, which was introduced from the 
S. Americas ; it is used as a sweetmeat, and is sold ready 
boiled in the streets. 

About seven leagues north-east of Malaga are the celebrated 
mineral baths of Carratraca. They are sulphuretted hydrogen 
of the temperature of 14° Reaumur ; the source is constant 
and abundant. They are much frequented from June 20 to 
September 20. The large tanks, allercas, in which the patients 
feathe, p,re, as usual, in a neglected and dilapidated condition. 



RAMON, THE GUIDE. 371 



Near this place and Hardales is a singular cavern, the glitter- 
ing spars of which, if visited by torch-light, produce a magic 
effect. 

The want of a fine sea-view was greatly felt by us at the 
magnificent Hotel of the Alemeda, where English comforts, 
with fresh oranges and fruits, can be enjoyed under an Andalu- 
cian climate. 

Being somewhat pressed for time, and not wishing to leave 
Andalucia without seeing the wonders of the Alhambra, we 
were compelled to quit the society of the new Inn, w^hich was 
then occupied by an American invalid, Mr. K. of Albany, the 
American Consul from Tangiers, and a relative of the lamen- 
ted Powers, the actor, and to make a start for Granada. 

We were not long in making a contract with one Manuel 
Ramon, a capital specimen of a guide ; who proved to be all 
that was recommended, a fat and pleasant fellow, full of pro- 
verbs, with a decided turn for the olla and bota — whereby his 
master fared all the better — and knowing the country and its 
ways well. 

r FOR GRANADA. 

At half past three o'clock on the following morning, Ramon 
appeared at the gate with his horses and a well filled basket. 
In a few moments we both sallied out from the court-yard, and 
passing through the main street of the city, rode out to the 
shipping-port, with no other lights to guide our feet but the 
galaxy of brilliant stars shining over our heads. We had 
passed the quays, and were wending our way round the high 
cliffs protecting Malaga from the east; and having reached that 
point of the road where the Atalaya tower frowns over the sea, 



372 TRACES OF TRE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

to the right of the vine-clad mountain, when we were startled 
from our reverie by the salute of the coast sentinal, who shouted 
Quien va ? who goes there ? — Spana ! Que pais ? Paesano, a 
fellow-countryman ! This salutation having been fully answered 
we were allowed to go on, which we did at a jogging trot, Ra- 
mon always preceding with the sumpter horse, carrying the 
alforjas, that were hung across the saddle, and kept bouncing 
up and down against his shanks making the air resound with 
the tinkling canisters they contained. 

Continuing our ride, Ramon would only stop his horse to 
alight at a small booth by the way-side, where he would get 
a glass of aquadiente, or native brandy, and handing one to 
me, would say, " Senor, it is good for the chills, this gloomy 
morning." It was very refreshing, I assure you ! The morn- 
ing was still dark, the dawn not having yet appeared, we could 
scarcely distinguish the stones lying in our pathway, it was so 
early that we could barely make out the glimmer of the sea, for 
our road continued for a long while beside the sea shore, occa- 
sionally, however, it branched off from the water > line and 
passed over some of the prominent cliffs that abutted on its 
margin. "We passed large droves of mules laden with boxes 
of raisins, on their way to Malaga, and while each muleteer, 
guided his leader on foot, we were accosted severally by each 
party with the ordinary salutation of " Que vaya Yd. con Dios." 
God bless you ! while our ears were greeted by an occasional 
snatch of a song, as the muleteers varied the tone of their 
voices from the musical strain they were singing, to the harsher 
screams of arrah ! and sa ! they uttered to the animals. For 
two weary leagues we rode along most of the time in sight of 
the beach, until at length we struck off from the sea, taking a 
northerly direction in-land, soon reached the region of the sugar- 



CHARMING COAST RIDE. 3T3 

cane, where the melancholy palm trees bend under the influ- 
ences of the strong levant. Shortly we came into the realms 
of perpetual spring, when the returning day-light gladdened the 
face of the country and lent varied views to the swelling forms 
of undulating hills and sierras of elevated beauty endorsed the 
lesser mountains in the fore-gound. All along the path we 
could overlook the distant watch-towers that stood in pictu- 
resque array along the sea shore, having a station for the guards 
that inhabited them, while they gave us a note of the distance 
we had gained : and when the sun arose in majesty over the 
tops of the snow clad mountains in the back-ground, gently 
spreading its beams over the whole surface of the district, its 
glorious effects instilled new beauties in the landscape, and pro- 
claimed the advent of the morn. Farm-houses began to be 
seen, and groups of peasants gathered by the roadside, occa- 
sionally a carbinero would trudge along, or a smuggler cross our 
path, in the rich domains of the grape-bearing hills. Beyond 
the ranges of delightful vegOs or happy valleys at the foot of 
the rocky barriers enternal summer reigns, and the climate is 
delicious at the spot where Yelez Malaga rises over its gentle 
eminence, in the Bubito, where Flora and Pomona join in 
bringing gifts for man's enjoyment. 

VELEZ MALAGA. 

It was the busy season of the raisin crop, the time of buying 
raisins, and the highway was lined with gangs of muleteers 
driving the laden donkeys, and hurrying the produce to the 
merchant. It is in the heart of a land "flowing with milk and 
honey, or oil and wine." Here is the palm, without the desert, 
the sugar-cane without the slave. The spires and convents 



374 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

cluster round the ruins of a rock-built Moorish castle. Above 
rise the lordly barren mountains of Tejada which look coldly 
down on the industry of the plain. The water-courses which 
have peeled the sierras deposit the soil, and detritus in the* val- 
leys of Yelez, and the combination of moisture under a tropical 
sun produce the batata, indigo and sugar-cane. The latter was 
brought here from Sicily by the Carthaginians. 

Yelez Malaga perched on its lofty hill with its old castle in 
ruins and antiquated edifices clustering around it like grapes 
on the bunch, was taken from the Moors by Ferdinand el Cato- 
lico in person, who himself killed a Moor here, with which he 
was so pleased that he gave the city for its arms his own figure 
on horseback, spearing an infidel. 

Velez Malaga was the birth-place of Joaquin Blake, the 
friend of Mahy Ballesteros, and of all opposed to the Duke and 
the British alliance : he was the loser of more pitched battles, 
("mas de den" says his worthy eulogist Maldonado) than any 
man in ancient or modern history, Spanish included. He was 
the son of a rebel Irish shop-keeper, and began life as a lecturer 
in a military school on the art of war : the poor pedant, learned 
in theory, never mastered its practice, and to his " ignorance in 
his profession," the Duke ascribed his last feat, the loss of 
Valencia ; but his defeats never made him. unpopular with 
Spaniards, who admired his courage, and still more his Espa- 
holismo and patrictisimo, in preferring being routed himself 
rather than permitting better men because foreigners to lead 
Spaniards to victory. 

This "child in the art of war," was no relation of Robert 
Blake, the great admiral of Cromwell, who at the age of fifty 
passed from the army into naval command, and always was vic- 
torious ; he was the. master and terror of the Mediterranean 



PROCESS OF DRYING GRAPES. 3*7 5 

He, in 1654, summoned the viceroy of Malaga to surrender to 
him a priest at whose instigation the mob had risen upon some 
English sailors during a religious pageant. The governor 
trembled and complied. Blake received the culprit, who ex- 
pected death, with great kindness, and sent him back with a 
message that he would prevent his sailors' misbehavior for the 
future, " but that no one should presume to punish Englishmen 
except himself." 

Kot far from this point we had occasion to observe the pro- 
cess of drying grapes, in the manufacture of raisins. The 
grapes are spread out on paseros or long wooden boxes or 
trays exposed to the south, which are covered at night in order 
to prevent ill effects from the night dews. The rich alluvial 
plains which are common in this neighborhood are termed 
" Vegas," lie snugly on the bosom of their mountains' embrace, 
where a luxuriant vegetation obtains throughout the whole 
year. 

Here we baited the animals, and remained during the heat 
of the day. At half past two we passed on toward Yinuela. 

The ride of two leagues to Yifiuela was of uninterrupted 
pleasure and beauty, passing through a region of tropical fer- 
tility with a nature as verdurous and fruity as any on earth; its 
position amid its own rugged rocks lent an aspect of sublimity 
to this home of Flora and Pomana. After passing the ruined 
Zalea, the mountains became steep and barren. Amid these 
sterile chains nature is ever grand, and the noTrie profiles of the 
Tejada and Spajarra are ever in view. The sun went down 
while we were clambering over the gloomy and basaltic rugged- 
ness of these sierra, and we had to grope the rest of our way 
over the mountains, until we reached the narrow gorge of the 
Alhama chain. It was fully nine before Ramon knocked at 



376 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 



the Casa de los Caballeros, a private house for the accommo- 
dation of his friends, with clean rooms, but an empty larder. 

A L H A M A . 

The number of the baths which existed at the times of the 
cleanly Romans and Moors gave rise to this diminutive of 
Al-Hamman— Alhama. This town is the Konda of these 
Alpine districts, perched on the edge of an awful rent in the 
hills, round which the river Marchan sweeps. It is backed by 
its own sierra, in which the Tejada rises 8,000 feet above the 
sea. It was the land-key of Granada, and its romantic capture 
by the Moors of Cadiz spread consternation into the Alhambra, 
and paved the way for the final conquest of Granada. 

The well-known plaintive ballad, commencing, "Ay! de mi 
Alhama !" — " Alas ! for my Alhama !" expressed the national 
lamentation of the Moors. In the Moorish period it was much 
frequented for its baths ; now it is a picture of decay. 

The traveler may look at the Aqueduct on the Plaza, peep 
over the tujo, pass on to the church, with its single tower, and 
thence under an archway by the miserable prison, from whose 
lofty grated windows the stranger is howled at by wretches in 
whose eye is famine, and on whose countenance is guilt and 
oppression : they let down by long strings baskets to receive 
rare donations of food, alms, and occasionally files, false keys, 
and implements for escape. Passing the arch at the head of a 
staircase which leads into the church is a most picturesque 
house in which many varieties of architectural style are intro- 
duced in juxtaposition. There are the Gothic windows of the 
fifteenth century, the peculiar " ball " ornament so frequent in 
Toledo; there are the projecting ornaments such as occur at 






BATHS MINERAL SPRINGS. 377 

Salamanca and Guadalajara, with an Arragonese character 
of solidity, all combined in this single facade; many of the 
houses of Alhama are casas solares, or the family mansions 
granted to those who assisted at the conquest. The stone of 
which they are built is much corroded. The armorial bear- 
ings over the portals contrast with the misery in-doors, pride 
coupled with poverty. The population is clad in brown, like 
that of La Maucha, for the gay Andaluz Majo has disap- 
peared. 

The view of the tajo from the convent de San Diego is 
striking. Below tears the foaming Marchan, winding through 
ravines and rocky pinnacles. The whole scene is made for the 
painter; on the ledges of the beetling cliffs are picturesque 
houses, with trellised vines and hanging gardens, while below 
boil water-mills and cascades. Alhama is seen to best advan- 
tage at its fair-time, September 8. 

The road to Granada descends from Alhama. Continuing 
up the bed of the river, and passing a picturesque mill, to the 
left, at a short distance, are the mineral baths. The waters 
issue out of a dip in the hills, in that sort of position so 
common to warm volcanic springs. They are strongly im- 
pregnated with nitrogen gas, as was first ascertained by Dr. 
Daubeny; considered to be beneficial for dyspepsia and rheu- 
matism, they are frequented in spring and autumn. The bath 
called el Bano de la Reyna is circular, with a dome over it like 
the Pantheon at Rome, a round opening to the sky, and is 
quite in the style of the Romans, by whom it probably was 
erected. The Moorish bath el Bano fuerte, so called from the 
heat and strength of the waters, as it is nearer their source, is 
well preserved and very picturesque, with its emerald pool and 
spiry clouds of steam. A new bath for one person has recently 



378 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 






been constructed in a parallelogram form, with steps to descend 
into it; it is placed between the two older ones. 

The road to Granada carried us over the Sierras of Alhama, 
and by a deep gorge descending to the village of Cacin, which 
is placed at the bottom of a funnel. From this point ascending, 
we crossed over a wild and sterile district, until we reached the 
Vent a dc Huelma and salt-works of La Mala. About two 
miles further on it enters the Yega of Granada, which is 
spread out like a green carpet before the towering Sierra 
Nevada, now seen in all its Alpine majesty. Yisions of the 
past glories of the Alhama flitted before the inind's eye, at 
the first sight of this interesting town, while we crossed over 
the threshold of the mountain-pass from which Boabdil gave 
his last lingering look at the home of his fathers, a spot 
remembered as the " Ultimo Suspiro de los Moros." — " The 
last sigh of the Moors." The hot sun of noon spent all its 
fires on the plain, and we rode rapidly into Granada, eager 
to enjoy the beauties of that enchanted land, for there is a 
fascination in the classic name of Alhambra. 



PEARLS SET iy EMERALD. 379 



GRANADA 



" Quien no ha visto a Gra?iaa, 
JVo ha visto a naa." 



Certainly art and nature have combined to render Granada, 
with its Alps, plain, and Alhambra, one of those places which 
realize all previous conceptions. 

The town is built on the spur of the mountains which rise 
to the north-east to their greatest altitude. Like Broussa, 
in Asia Minor, it has its Olympus, valley, and fortress palace. 
The city overlooks the Vega, at about 2445 feet above the level 
of the sea, and this Yega is "a spot," said the Arabians, 
" superior in extent and fertility to the Ghauttah, or the valley 
of Damascus :" who compared the white villas and farm-houses 
which sparkle amid the eternal verdure, to " Oriental pearls 
set in a cup of emeralds." Granada is built on and at, the base 
of several hills; the portion of the Little Antequera hangs 
over the Xenil. The Alhambra is built on a crowning height 
that hangs over the Darro, which separates the Antequerela, 
from the Albaicin. The best portion of the town lies at the 
base, while none but the poor live above. The Granadinos 
despise the Alhambra, as a casa de r atones — a rat's hole — which 
indeed they have made it. 

kThe " canting" arms of Granada are a pomegranate, 
Granada," stalked and proper : some, catching at sound, not 
sense, have derived Granada from "Granatum," but the 



380 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND- MOOR. 

Moorish name was Karnattah, and they never would have 
taken a Latin word had they wished to call the town " Pome- 
granate," because the hills are divided somewhat like that fruit. 
They would have preferred their own word Rommaii, and to 
this day a salad made of pomegranates is called " Ensalada 
RomanaP It would be not less absurd to interpret this as 
Roman than to connect Karnattah with a pomegranate. 

The first object of course will be the Alhambra; ascend 
therefore the Calle de los Gomeles, and, passing under the gate 
de las Granadas, enter the magical jurisdiction of this fairy 
palace. Three, paths diverge; that to the right leads to the 
Torres Bermejas, the "red towers," a sort of outwork, which 
deserves a subsequent visit. This, the most ancient portion of 
Granada, existed when Illiberis was the chief town, and is 
mentioned as " Kal-'at Al-hamra," "the red castle," by an 
Arabian poet so early as A. D. 864. It was afterwards called 
Medinah Al-hamra, "the red city." 

The long lines of walls and towers crown the hill, and follow 
the curves and dips of the ground : there is no attempt at 
symmetry or anything straight; hence, as at Jaen, Xativa, etc., 
the elegance and picturesqueness of these Oriental fortifications ; 
they are the antitheses of the commonplace line and rule places 
of Yauban, which are as worthless to the artist as admirable 
to the engineer. 

The Moorish towers rise like reddish cork models out of a 
girdle of trees, which contrasts with the stony sierras above; 
but all is artificial, and the work of the water-enchanter Moor. 
The centre walk leads to the public gardens; that to the left 
to the Alhambra; the wooded slopes are kept green by water- 
courses, and tenanted by nightingales: although everything 
looks the work of nature, it is the creation of man, as the 



ROCK CHANGED INTO EDEN. 381 



Moor changed the barren rock into an Eden; had the French 
intentions succeeded, all would have relapsed into barrenness, 
from their destruction of the supply of water : the elm-trees 
came from England, and here being rare, are as much admired 
as palms with us; on reaching the height is a semicircular 
barbican, and below it a fountain, wrought in the coarse stone 
of Elvira, in the Berruguete style. It was erected by the 
Alcaide Mendoza, whose arms, with those of Charles Y., are 
sculptured on it. The river-gods are the Genii, Darro, etc.: 
this monument has recently been barbarously repaired and 
"restored." 

Granada is a city of fountains. The Darro and Xenil are 
drawn off in canals from high up near their sources, and thus 
the waters retain the original elevation above the town; 
columns are accordingly thrown up from fountains in great 
body and height. 

A sharp turn conducts to the grand entrace, La Torre de 
Justicia, the "gate of judgment," the "Sublime Porte," at 
which the king or his kaid dispensed judgment, as in the East, 
(Deut. xvi. 18; 1 Kings viii. 7,) after an ancient fashion, which 
at least was more rapid and cheap, and possibly quite as 
equitable, as any modern Court of Chancery, either below the 
hill or elsewhere. This gate was erected in 1308, by Yusuf I., 
Abu-1-hajaj, a great decorator of the Alhambra. The Moors 
called it Babu-sh-sharPah, the "gate of the law." The inscrip- 
tion over the inner doorway records its elevation and the name 
of the founder. It ends, "May the Almighty make this [gate] 
a protecting bulwark, and write down its [erection] among the 
imperishable actions of the just." The Moorish drapery has 
been broken, to make a niche for a poor wooden image of the 
Virgin. 



382 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

Over the outer horse-shoe arch is seen an open hand, which 
some consider an emblem of hospitality and generosity, the 
redeeming qualities of the Oriental. Others think it a type of 
the five principal commandments of the creed of Islam — " To 
keep the fast of Ramadan, pilgrimage to Mecca, almsgiving, 
ablution, and war against the infidel." Others refer it to the 
Hebrew jadh, the hand of God, the Oriental symbol of power 
and providence. But the true meaning of it is a talisman over 
the portal against the much dreaded "Evil Eye," at which 
Orientals and Spaniards have always and do still tremble. The 
Morisco women wore small bands of gold and silver round 
their necks, like the Neapolitans, and a substitute for the 
classical phallic symbol of defiance. Charles Y., by a Pragma- 
tica in 1525, forbad this usage. In the Sala de los Embajadores 
is an inscription to the same purport: "The best praise be 
given to God ! I will remove all the effects of an evil eye upon 
our master Yusuf," etc. 

Over the inner arch is a sculptured key, in which some see 
the Oriental symbol of power, (Isa. xxii. 22,) and others the 
"key of David." (Rev. iii. T.) Others, however, hold that it 
is allusive to the " power of the keys," by which the true pro- 
phet opened the gates of heaven and hell. Then it is said to 
be simply a badge of honor, like the keys worn by chamber- 
lains and titled menials; the key, however, was a symbolic sign 
among the Sufis, denoting knowledge — " the key by which 
God opens the heart of believers." It occurs over many 
Andalucian castles, especially those built after the arrival of 
the Almohades, who bore this particular badge on their ban- 
ners. There is an idle tale, how the Moors boasted that this 
gate never would be opened to the Christians until the hand 
took the key. 



GATE AND TOWER. 383 



The entrance is carried through a double gate : " David sat 
between the two gates." (2 Sam. xviii. 24.) Here is a guard- 
room; and the passages are contrived so as to obstruct an 
entering enemy. Xow, instead of the w ell-appointed Mameluke 
and glittering Moor, or iron-clad champion of Tendilla, a few 
gaunt, bandit-looking invalids are huddled together. 

Passing onwards, near a paltry altar screen, is a Gothic 
inscription, coeval with the conquest, recording that event, and 
the appointment of Inigo Lopez de Mendoza as alcaide. The 
iurisdiction of the Alhambra is separate from that of Granada, 
and has its own governor. The office was one of high honor, 
but is now altogether second-rate. 

The Virgin and Child, in the Retablo, was painted by Saint 
Luke, to which, if any doubt, Mateo Ximenez will swear. In 
our time no donkeys were allowed to go through this passage, 
because some had grossly misbehaved themselves before the 
painting. Hence a narrow wall-enclosed lane leads to the 
open place, Plaza de los Algibes. 

Ascend the Torre de la Vela. Here, as an inscription 
records, the Christian flag was first hoisted by the Cardinal 
Mendoza and his brother. The panorama is glorious. Below 
lies Granada, belted w r ith plantations; beyond expands the 
Yega, about thirty miles in length by twenty-five in width, 
seventy in circumference, and guarded like an Eden by a wall 
of mountains. The basin was once a lake, through which the 
Xenil burst a way at Loja. The Yega is studded with villas 
and villages; every field has its battle, every rivulet its ballad. 
It is a scene for painters to sketch, and for poets to describe. 
To the left, rise the snowy Alpujarras, then the distant Sierra 
of Alhama, then the gorge of Loja in the distance, then the 
round mountain of Parapanda, which is the barometer of the 



384 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

Vega, as Soracte was to Horace; for when its head is bon- 
netted with mists, so surely does rain fall : " Cuando Parapanda 
se pone la Montera, Llueve aunque Dios no lo quisiera." 
Nearer Granada is the Sierra de Elvira, the site of old Illiberis, 
and below the dark woods of the Soto de Roma. To the right 
is the rocky defile of Moclin, and the distant chains of Jaen: 
the Torre de la Vela was gutted by the French. It is so called, 
because on this "watch-tower" hangs a silver-tongued bell, 
which, struck by the warder at certain times, is the primitive 
clock that gives notice to irrigators below. It is heard on a 
still night even at Loja, thirty miles off. This bell is also rung 
every January 2, the anniversary of the surrender of Granada; 
on that day the Alhambra is visited by crowds of peasantry. 
Few maidens pass by without striking the bell, which ensures 
a husband, and a good one in proportion as the noise made, 
which, it need not be said, is continuous and considerable. 
The fete is altogether most national and picturesque. Ascend 
this torre just before the sun sets, to see what is his glory in 
these southern latitudes, when he crimsons heaven and earth. 
Then, as darkness comes on, the long lines of burning weeds 
and stubble in the Yega, run and sparkle, crackling like the 
battle flashes of infantry ; and, in the old warder's remark, recall 
the last campaigns of the Moor and Christian. 

Bensaken, el Moro, the best of guides, conducted us to the 
Cathedral and Capillo de los Reyes, the Chapel of the Kings, 
which is a perfect gem of architecture, placed between the 
Sagrario and Sacristia. 



MAGNIFICENT PANORAMA. 385 



ALHAMBRA. 

Starting very early one morning on horseback, with irregular 
loitering, and quite indifferent as to what course I should pur- 
sue, I finally made my way up towards the hill of the Alham- 
bra, and having passed through the narrow streets of the city, 
found myself at length under the shadow of the Vermilion 
Tower. Riding on through the woods, with their refreshing- 
shades, cooling the approach to these glorious ruins, fsauntered 
lazily under the trees that threw their overhanging boughs over 
the avenues and pathway, lending an air of seclusion to the 
deep dells and tangled copse of the more retired groves that 
guard the pass, so well protected by the Massacuttin Tower, 
I entered by the Grate of Justice, which still retains its gateway 
with the symbolic devices. The hand without the porch still 
omens of its charm against evil, and the key within is significant 
of the power of the prophet to unlock the gates of paradise. 
Passing on through another gateway, and leaving the ruined 
pile of Charles V. behind me, I came under another archway, 
beneath a chamber under the wall above, which was owned by 
an English gentleman, who could there admire the well pre- 
served azulejo work on its sides. Beyond that was the tow er 
De La Vega, from the top of which a huge silver-toned bell 
peals with its merry chimes, ringing at night only the hours and 
the quarters, and sounding never by day, save as the alarm of 
revolution. The view from the top is magnificent: ascend it, 
and what a glorious panorama is presented. Below you lies 
the town of Granada, separated only from the Hill of the 
Albaicin by the fearful go*ge of the Darro. There was the 
old Moorish town, now tenanted by gipsies and the poor. Both 
these quarters, built on the summit of majestic hills, present the 

17 



386 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

cities as they rise in easy succession on the waste amphitheatre 
that surmounts the rich plain and the valley. That champagne 
rolls out its verdure in rich fields, spreading, like a carpet, until 
it is hemmed nf and bound by the fringes of the distant moun- 
tains. The bold and snow-clad Nevada looms over the wide 
opening of the Suspiro gorge, and loses its form in the moun- 
tains of the Sun. Nearer to the town are the hills of Elcira 
and the city of Santa Fe, of broken faith, where the Castilian 
king sat te watch the battle on the plain, and to make treaties 
and vows — made, only to be broken. Overlooking all this 
scene the Parapanda towers, with its mist-clouded head, indica- 
tive of rain ; and beyond, on one side, are the hills of Loja, and 
the mountains of Jaen, while beneath the eye is the circuit of 
Granada, hemmed in and circumscribed by its own mountains 
of the Sun and Moon, and gleaming on those hills, studded with 
fair, white houses, like pearls encircled by emeralds and ultra- 
marine. Opposite this tower are the ruins and portions of 
the old Moorish wall, and below the parapets, under the 
shelter of the scattered debris, are the hanging gardens of 
Charles V., and the boa-constrictor forms of the grape vines 
which were originally planted by the Moors. In the outer 
court is the original fountain of the Alhambra, which still sup- 
plies pure water for the use of the city, and having crossed the 
square of the fountain, you enter into the gorgeous palace of the 
Alhambra, under the portals of a modern gateway. How great 
is the contrast there presented with the inferior and neglected 
outer wall ! You now stand within the Alberca, or court of the 
tank or fish-pond. At your right is the mere shell or front of 
the winter's palace, which was destroyed to make room for the 
abominable and heavy architectural abortion of Charles V. 
All is now fairy-like and light within, and entirely unlike any- 



GOLDEN FISH IN TANK. 387 



thing that could have been anticipated from the gloomy appear- 
ance of the external walls and towers. In the tank of this 
court are the descendants of the first gold fish that ever swam 
in its waters. The aspect of the double corridor to your right 
is beautiful, graceful, and light, and is separated from the 
lower story by latticed windows of the harem, or women's apart- 
ment. The opposite front of the palace, leading to the Hall 
of the Ambassadors, is overtopped by the Tower of Comares. 
This lacks, however, a double corridor. Under the porticoes 
of this entrance are several pretty little alcoves, decorated with 
arabesque pendants. A stairway at the side of the Archives 
leads to the entrance of the Mesquita, or mosk. The patio in 
front presents a charming bit of architectural beauty, and shows 
the only remaining specimen of the original roof. Just opposite 
is the door of the Mesquita, with arches supported by slight 
and slender columns that would almost seem to bend under 
the superincumbent weight, were not that appearance relieved 
by the fretted lace-work of the arch above. The interior of 
the mosk has been so often retouched as to have lost much of 
its former primitive characteristics. The ante-room of the 
Ambassador's Hall has a curious wagon-domed roof, the side 
of which retains much of the original stucco work, which has 
been cut away on a line above the reach of man's hand. All 
around the wainscoting of azulejo work is retained, constructed 
in checker of various colors and forms, changing in composition 
and disposition of patterns according to the fancy of the archi- 
tect, and consisting chiefly of purple, green, and orange. The 
primitive red, blue, and gold, adorn the grounds of the Turkish 
stucco, and tile indentures of the ceiling hanging like the 
sections of a truncated honey-comb. Nothing could be richer 
than the effects of its varying beauties. 



388 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

Whilst passing thence by a long passage-way, we had a 
glimpse of the women's apartments, and of that particular 
chamber wherein the scene of the Zohayra's imprisonment was 
laid. This had been closed by an iron grating, though it was 
possible to observe the graceful and slight stems of the pillars 
supporting the arches of this secluded quarter. We at length 
came to the Tocador "of Queen's toilet-boudoir," a beautiful 
little apartment in ruins, retaining but little of its former 
interest and associations, but capable of inspiring some rays of 
poetic feeling, as you look through the interstices of the delicate 
columns that supported the roof ; and had it been sunset, you 
could have looked over the valley and the Yega-impending 
mountains, upon a scene and landskip which would then have 
been painted with all the gorgeous tones of an Italian sky, with 
Claude Lorraine's perspective. 

Having descended into the court below, we soon reached 
the apartments of the baths, where we obtained a sight of 
several underground passages which seemed to communicate 
with different parts of the palace, affording the secret means 
of escape in time of necessity. By retracing our steps, and 
returning into the square of the " Berca," we gained an entrance 
into the Court of " Lions." No order of architectural beauty 
could surpass the fairy-like proportions of this patio, surrounded 
by a hundred graceful columns, which were disposed in alter- 
nate ranks of single pillars and couplets, so arranged as to 
enclose in their centre a beautiful fountain of chaste marble, 
supported on rather dubious effigies of lions, while two light 
and graceful porches extended out into the court, under the 
shelter of which groups of devout Musselmen were formerly 
wont to assemble and talk the news before entering the Hall 
of Justice, which was within the vestibule beyond. The inte- 



LOCALE OF LOVE TALES. 389 

rior of several of the rooms under these porticos were richly 
ornamented with ensculptured tablets and arabesque scrolls, 
presenting an aspect of aerial and Oriental grace in their com- 
position, which defied the faculty of a descriptive tourist, offer- 
ing no parallel unto which they could be likened or compared, 
except in the marvelous illuminations of the Tales of the 
Arabian Nights. 

The Halls of the Abencarrages and Las Dos Hermanas, or 
the " Two Sisters," suggested a most perfect beau-ideal of the 
locale of Eastern love-tale, and peopled the fancy with the 
most brilliant images of those scenes in the Harems of the 
East, where " dark-eyed beauties of raven hah'," and houris for 
the prophat, appeared reclining and sleeping on golden couches, 
amid the perfumes of sweet incense and the soft notes of music, 
while the ever- wakeful eunuch kept his vigils at the gate. It 
were useless to attempt a proper description of these miracles of 
art, or of that gorgeous coup-d'ceil which may be had from the 
unique window of the Linderaja. There is nothing similar in 
nature but those magnificent caves, where crystals of stalactitic 
grace hang pendant from the walls, or flowers of sulphates form 
in lines along the roofs of these brilliant caverns. Here only 
may be seen the poetry of architecture. At the Alhambra the 
name of Washington Irving has been wedded to the mystical 
muse of the spot, and must ever be suffered to remain there 
in order to be pregnant with inspiration. 

The Alhambra hill is about 2690 feet long by "30 feet in 
its widest part ; the walls average thirty feet high and six feet 
thick ; it is shaped like a grand-piano, with the point toward 
the Torre de la Vela: it is entirely girdled with walls and 
towers. 

Leaving the Palace by a small door at the hall of Justice, 



390 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

and following the outer wall to the left, is the Casa del Observa- 
torio, so called from its mirador, or Casa Sanchez, from having 
been the dwelling of a poor but honest peasant of that name. 
It was once picturesque and beloved by every artist, but it was 
ruined bv a barbarian in 1831. 

4/ 

Continuing lower down is the Moorish gate of the Torre del 
Pico, which the French intended to blow up as a parting 
legacy, had not their intention been thwarted by the procrasti- 
nation of the agent Farses. From this gate, a path, crossing 
the ravine, leads up to the Generalife. The grand mosque of 
the Alhambra stood near; it was built in 1308, by Mohammed 
III., and is thus described by Ibnu-1-Khattib : — It is " orna- 
mented with Mosaic work, and exquisite tracery of the most 
beautiful and intricate patterns, intermixed with silver flowers 
and graceful arches, supported by innumerable pillars of the 
finest polished marble; indeed, what with the solidity of the 
structure, which the sultan inspected in person, the elegance 
of the design, and *the beauty of the proportions, the building 
has not its like in this country; and I have frequently heard 
our best architects say that they had never seen or heard of a 
building which can be compared to it." This, continues Gay- 
angos, was in very good preservation until the ruthless occupa- 
tion of the French, when it was entirely destroyed. 

Continuing to the right is the corner tower, de la Agua ; 
here an aqueduct, spanning the most picturesque ravine, sup- 
plies the hill with water. The French blew up this and the 
next tower; had they succeeded, as they wished, in destroying 
the aqueduct, the Alhambra would have become again a 
desert. Other towers, injured by these destroyers, now in- 
tervene between "Los Sietc Suelos," the seven stories, or the 
former grand gate by which Boabdil went out, descending to 



SOLID MASS OF FORTRESS. 391 

Xenil by the Puerta de los Molinos : hence it was afterwards 
walled up, as being a gate of bad omen. This is a pure Orien- 
talism. So likewise, when princes came in, "This gate shall be 
shut, it shall not be opened, no man shall enter in by it." 
(Ezek. xliv. 2.) All was wantonly blown up by the French. 
The walls were fourteen feet thick, but what can withstand 
" villainous saltpetre V 7 Whatever escaped was by lucky 
accident, and now the ruins of six towers, their embroidery 
and porcelain, testify what they once were; all this quarter, 
with the Moorish palace of the Mufti, and La Casa de las 
Viudas, was leveled by Sebastiani, to make an exercising 
ground for* his soldiers. Passing the Puerta del Carril, by 
which carriages enter the Alhambra, the circuit is completed. 

In order to visit the Generalife, we passed out at the Puerta 
del Pico, to the right of the remains of the old Moorish Stables. 
A deep and romantic ravine now divides the hill of the Alham- 
bra from the Sierra del Sol. Ascending amidst figs and vines 
is the Generalife — Jennatu-Varif, the " garden of the archi- 
tect," of whom Isma'il-Ibn-Faraj, the sultan, purchased the 
site in 1320. This mountain villa, now belongs to the Marquis 
of Campotejar, of the Grimaldi Gentili family. He is an 
absentee, living at Genoa, and the real owner, as usual, is the 
administrador. This was the palace of Omar, and still retains 
traces of Moorish-Tarkish and Azulejo work, with .the artin- 
sonado roof. This is still a villa of waters; the canal of the 
Darro here empties its virgin stream; it boils through the 
evergreen glades under the arches of the court, while an open 
colonnade overlooks the Alhambra, no longer looking like a 
filagree boudoir, but a grand solid mass of fortress. The 
view of Granada and the mountain prospect obtained from 
the arches of this colonnade, was magnificent, while the shelter 



892 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

of its cypresses rustling in the breeze, in soft cadence with the 
bubbling of the Darro's fountains, gave an aspect to the scene 
which was truly enchanting. The livery-rooms are those at the 
head of the court, but the inmates and furniture are in misera- 
ble contrast with Moorish forms and color. Look at these 
cypresses, the " trysting-place n of the Sultana, which are 
enormous, and as old as the Moors; the frail Zoraya, is said to 
have been discovered under them with her lover, the Abencer- 
rage; but this is a calumny of the Romaneeros, and they are 
false witnesses, like the " Holm and Mastick" of the chaste 
Susanna. 

At the top of the hill is the Moor's chair, la Silla del Moro, 
from which the view is splendid, that never can be defiled or 
destroyed. In the evening I went again to the tower, and 
took a view of that magnificent panorama from the tower de la 
Vela. How glorious was the light of that sunset ! how superb 
the effect of the lingering rays which stole over mountain and 
dell ! and as I listened to sounds of the wood-peopling nightin- 
gale, making the groves of the Albaicir vocal with their notes, 
it was an easy task to recall the light of the glories of those 
golden nights, when Moorish beauties hung their fair forms 
over the frames of these ancient balconies, and thence listened 
from their mirodors, when they enjoyed the splendor of these 
enchanting scenes, and waiting impatiently for the step of their 
cherished lovers, vividly awake all the while, either to the sound 
of the distant lutes, or the carols of the joyous birds. At such 
an hour the heart's finest chords are touched with tones of 
deepest sympathy, and the recollection of Moorish grandeur, 
of Alhambra splendor, and their maidens' joys rushed through 
the chambers of my memory, revealing strong images of varied 
and mingled emotions of sorrow for the losses of the chieftain 



MOORISH LIVERY OF SEISIX. 393 

of Granada, of pity for the deep sighs which rose from the 
throbbing bosom of the vanquished, for the tear shed by manly 
eyes at the rupture of his warrior hopes, and his separation 
from the Paradise of his heart. No sentiments can be more 
impressive than those which arise in the pregnant womb of eve, 
there can be no better time for the earnest struggles of the 
heart, no better place to scene out the pleasures of the imagi- 
nation, upon which to depict the visions of past glories, and 
abandoned wrecks of joys. Here, when sunset casts its last 
throes of purple over the fall of the passing day, as the soft 
winds sigh through the halls of the Moors, and the bright 
towers of the Alhambra blaze with vivid touches of golden light, 
before night buries nature and fair art in a universal mantle of 
gloom and blackness. Again we mounted to the Alhambra, our 
fleet coursers, rapidly as the winds, galloping through the 
narrow lanes of the Albaicen, and trampling almost upon the 
beggars, gipsies, gamblers, and animals of this Jewry, until 
we reached the convent de los Martiros. The garden with its 
little aqueduct is pretty, it is in close juxta-position with the 
barranco or ravine behind it, where gipsies live in troglodyte 
burrows, amid aloes and prickly pears. The dark daughters 
of Moultan sit in their rags under their vines, while their 
elfin brats beg of the stranger an ackavico. The Cualto Peal, 
one of the convent gardens, was once a royal Moorish villa. 
The approach is under a high embowered archway of bays and 
enormous myrtles. The saloons and the Azulejo wear freshly 
on their cunic inscriptions of green, white, and blue. The 
w T hite tiles with golden scrolls occur nowhere else. The origi- 
nal deeds of this garden, afford a curious abstract of the titles 
of this age. The " livery of Seisin," was thus : Don Alonzo 
entered the garden pavilion; next he opened and shut the door, 

17* 



394 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

giving the key to Macafreto, a well-known householder of 
Granada, he then went into the garden, cut off a bit of a tree 
with his knife, and dug up some earth with his spade. Such 
was the practice of the Moorish conveyancers. 

Not far from the Puerto, del Pescada, where a Moorish gate- 
way displays three arches of elegant design, is the Cxtrrera del 
Darro, or public walk, with planted trees, which communicates 
with the Alameda on the Xenil, and is much frequented in the 
mornings of winter and evenings of summer. 

The Darro rises from the hill of myrtles near Huetor, and 
approaches Granada under the Monte Sacro ; so called from 
the finding certain sacred bones and relics, to which are attri- 
buted the sweetness and fertilizing quality of the stream. The 
walks on both sides of the swift arrowy Darro up this hill are 
delicious: the stream gambols down the defile; hence its Arabic 
name Ilddaroh, from Hadar, " rapidity in flowing." Gold is 
found in the bed ; whence some, catching at the beloved sound, 
have derived the name Darro, " quasi dat aurum;" and in 1$26 
a crown was given to Isabel, wife of Charles V., made from 
grains found in this Pactolus. Here amphibious gold-fishers still 
puddle in the eddies, earning a miserable livelihood in groping 
for the precious metal. The Romans called the river Salon : 
the gorge through which it flows under the Generalife, was the 
Haxariz, or " Garden of Recreation," of the Moors, and was 
studded with villas. The Darro, after washing the base of the 
Alhambra, flows under the Plaza nueva, being arched over ; 
and when swelled with rains, there is always much risk of its 
blowing up this covering. Such, -says the Seguidilla, is the 
portion which Darro will bear to his bride the Xenil. 






RIVERS DARRO AXD XENIL. 395 

" Darro tUne prometido, 
El casarse con Xenil 
Y le ha de llevar en dote. 
Plaza nneva y Zacatin" 

The Moorish Zacatin — Arabich Zacca ; streets, passages — is 
as antique as the Spanish Plaza nueva is modern. In summer 
it is covered with an awning, a toldo, which gives a cool and 
tenty look. At the respaldas, the Prout-like houses and top- 
pling balconies are so old that they seem only not to fall. 
Here is every form and color of picturesque poverty ; vines 
clamber up the irregularities, while below naiads dabble, wash- 
ing their red and yellow garments in the all-gilding glorious 
sunbeams. The Darro reappears at the end of its career at the 
"Carrera," and then marries itself to the Xenil. This — the 
Singiiis of the Romans, the Shingil of the Moor — flows from 
the Sierra Nevada through a most Alpine country. The waters, 
composed of melted snow, are unwholesome, as, indeed, are 
most of those of Granada, which have a purgative tendency. 
The Moorish poets, who saw in the Xenil the life-blood of the 
Yega, the element of wealth, compared its waters to " melted 
gold flowing between emerald banks." " What has Cairo to 
boast of with her Nile, since Granada has a thousand Xiles ?" 
The letter she, sheen, has also the numerical value of a thousand. 
The artist will, of course, trace this Xenil up to its glacier 
sources, from whence it gushes, pure, cold, and chaste. Far 
from cities, and free from their drains and pollutions, the river 
descends through a bosom of beauty, jealously detained at every 
step by some garden, which woos its embrace, and drains off its 
affection. The fickle impatient stream, fretted at every stone 
which opposes its escape, enters Granada under the Ante- 
querula, and passes El Salon, a fine walk. The sculptural 



390 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

decorations are, however, in the vilest art : never were pome- 
granates worse carved than in this Granada, which teems with 
real models, and once was celebrated for its carvers. The 
beauty and fashion congregate on this Alameda, which is con- 
stantly injured by overfloodings. The Xenil and Darro unite 
below it, and, after cleansing the town of its sewers, are "san- 
grado," or drained, for irrigation. The Xenil is soon increased 
by infinite mountain tributaries, and unites, a noble stream, with 
the Guadalquivir, near Ecija. 

While walking through the streets of Granada, the numerous 
and varied glimpses which you get of the prominently impend- 
ing hills and towers of the Alhambra, is a source of perpetual 
delight and beauty. One never appreciates so fully the truth 
of the poet's taste, that a thing- of beauty is a joy for ever, as 
when passing through the different Alameda of this town, which 
are usually watered by limpid and rapid streams of water flow- 
ing freshly from their native hills, and leaping along with their 
joyous murmurings, seeming almost to laugh with delight as 
they frolic away over the pebbled beds, and, to rejoice at the 
refreshing influences which they convey to the eye and the sense 
of the desultory man. In no place is the recollection of such 
joys and pleasurable emotions so vivid as in Granada, and 
while passing along by the famous old square of the Viba- 
rambia — the gate of river-^sq celebrated in the ballads sung 
for the Cahas and the balls of Gazul, one is particularly struck 
with the happy effect which the blessing of water supplies, as 
it runs along, mingling its life with the varied features which 
are so often afforded in Spain, amidst the grotesque hpuses of 
its towns and its animated market groups, and enlivened by a 
display of their various wares, delicious fruits, and party-clad 
people, as they are displayed at the booths and stalls on some 



GIL BLAS AND ARCHBISHOP. 391 

favorite market-day. The fruits of Spain are very fine, espe- 
cially the grapes, figs, and melons : the latter are piled up like 
cannon-shot, and few of the arsenals of Spain can vie with the 
display of the natural and vegetable artillery which is supplied 
on the market-days at Granada. The figs, however, bear the 
palm over all other fruit, from the small, delicious, early Breba 
to the little greengage-looking later fruit. The first, however, 
are attended with slight unpleasant circumstances, which some- 
times deter the traveler from indulging in them ; and for a more 
satisfactory account of this, I refer you to Hosea, ix. 10. 

Fish and fruit lie in close proximity on the quarter of the Pes- 
caderia, where the old wooden balconies will delight the eye of 
the artist, as must the ancient fish-like smell of the shambles 
offend the nose. All which but sinks into insignificance in com- 
parison with the classic recollections of the Archbishop's Palace 
round the corner, to the north of this square, where Gil Bias was 
simple enough to criticise the works of the archbishop. This 
palace, notwithstanding Le Sage describes it as rivaling a king's 
palace in magnificence, is nothing but a rat-box, as the Spanish 
would term it, casa de rat ares; a disparity of opinion of little 
consequence, when we reflect that Le Sage was never in Spain. 
The Cathedral adjoining the archbishop's palace was built 
when the Gothic style was going out of fashion. Granadinos 
think it a rival of Saint Peter's. It is blocked up with mean 
houses and streets. Three orders contest for the style of the 
tower, which lacks, as yet, a companion ; three recesses divide 
the compartments of the entrance, and the facade is so pagan- 
ized fey the attempts of modern artists, beginning it with rams' 
hpms, masks, and unfinished festoons, that it is much better 
.worth the painter's and reader's notice to study the groups in 
the markets, than distort their attention by a sight at such 



398 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

unseemly realities. We pass over the outside, in order to notice 
what is truly agreeable within. 

The Cajpilla de los Reyes is placed between the Sagrario and 
Sacristia, and is the gem of the cathedral. The rich Gothic 
portal, having escaped the Bourbon whitewash, contrasts with 
the glare around. It is elaborately wrought with emblems of 
heraldic pride and religious humility. The interior is impres- 
sive ; silence reigns in this chamber of the dead, and accords 
with the tender sentiment which the solemn Gothic peculiarly 
inspires. 

This royal chapel, like that of St. Ferdinand, at Seville, is 
independent of the cathedral, and has or had its separate chap- 
ter and eighteen chaplains. It is divided into two portions. 
The Coro alto is adorned with the shields and badges of the 
Catholic sovereigns. The superb Seja, of iron, partly gilt, was 
made in 1522, by el Maestre Bartolome, whose name is near 
the keyhole. 

On each side of the high altar kneel carved effigies of the 
king and queen, which are very remarkable, being exact repre- 
sentations of their faces, forms, and costumes : behind Ferdi- 
nand is the victorious banner of Castile, while the absorbing 
policy for which both lived and died— -the conquest of the Moor 
and the conversion of the Infidel — are embodied behind them 
in singular painted carvings, which have been attributed to 
Felipe Yigarny, and are of the highest antiquarian interest. 
In that which represents the surrender of the Alhambra, Isa- 
bella, on a white palfrey, rides between Ferdinand and third 
king, " the great cardinal " Mendoza ; he is on his trapped 
mule, like Wolsey, and alone wears gloves ; his pinched aqui- 
line face contrasts with the chubbiness of the king and queen. 
He opens his hand to receive the key, which the dismounted 



SEPULCHRE OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA. 399 

Boabdil presents, holding it by the wards. Behind him are 
ladies, knights, and haldberdiers, while captives come out from 
the gates in pairs. Nothing of the kind in Spain can be more 
curious. The other basso-relievo records the " Conversion of 
the Infidel." The reluctant flock is baptized in the wholesale 
by shorn monks. Observe the costumes : the mufflers and leg- 
wrappers of the women — the Roman fascia — are precisely those 
still worn at Tetuan by their descendants, who thus, as Orien- 
tals do not change stockings or fashions, corroborate the truth 
of these monuments. 

In the centre of the chapel are two magnificent sepulchres, 
wrought at Genoa by Peralta, so it is said, in delicate alabas- 
ter ; on these are extended their marble figures, and those of 
their next successors. Ferdinand and Isabella slumber side by 
side, life's fitful fever o'er, in the peaceful attitude of their long 
and happy union ; they contrast, the ruling passion strong in 
death, with the averted countenances of Juana, their weak 
daughter, and Philip, her handsome but worthless husband. 
Observe carefully the details of these urnas and the ornaments: 
in that of Ferdinand and Isabella the four doctors of the church 
are at the corners, and the twelve apostles at the sides : Ferdi- 
nand wears the Garter, Isabella the Cross of Santiago. Their 
faces are portraits : their costume is very simple. Analagous 
is the urna of Philip of Burgundy and Juana la Loca — crazy 
Jane. They are both gorgeously attired : he wears the Golden 
Fleece. The decorations are cinque-cento, and some of the 
sculptured children are quite Raphaelesque. 

These royal sepulchres are superb. The statue of Isabella is 
admirable ; her smile is as cold and her look as placid as moon 
light sleeping on snow : 



400 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 



" In questa forma 

Passa la bella donna e par che dorma." 

She died indeed far from Granada, but desired to be buried 
here, in the brightest pearl of her crown. The sentiment is 
truly touching, and the effect aimed at is fully produced : the 
subject is the Christian's death, who, stretched on the tomb, has 
yet the hope of another and a better life. She was the Eliza- 
beth of Spain, the brightest star of an age which produced 
Ximenez, Columbus, and the Great Captain, all of whom rose 
to full growth under her smile, and withered at her death. She 
is one of the most faultless characters in history, one of the 
purest sovereigns who ever graced or dignified a throne, who, 
" in all her relations of queen or woman," was, in the words of 
Lord Bacon, " an honor to her sex, and the corner-stone of the 
greatness of Spain." 

For the true character of the Catholic sovereigns consult 
Prescott's excellent work, or Shakspere, who, understanding 
human character by intuition, thus justly describes Ferdinand : 
"The wisest king that ever ruled in Spain :" and makes Henry 
VIII., when describing the virtues of his ill-fated Katharine, 
thus portray her mother Isabella : — 

'« If thy rare qualities, sweet gentleness 

Thy meekness, saint-like, wife-like government, 
Obeying in commanding, and thy parts 
Sovereign and pious, else could speak thee out 
The Queen of earthly Queens /" 

Next descend into their last resting-place ; a low door — 
mind your head — leads down to the vault, a small space, as 
Charles V. said, for so much greatness. The royal coffins are 
rude and misshapen, plain and iron-girt ; but they are genuine, 



GLORIES OF THE PAST. 401 



and have never been rifled by Gaul or Ghoul, like those of 
Leon and elsewhere. The ashes of the royal conqueror have 
never been insulted, nor have the "dead been unplumbed to 
furnish missiles of death against the living."- The letter "F marks 
that of Ferdinand. The religio loci and sepulchral character is 
injured by some modern churrigueresque stucco-work. 

Thus the earthly remains of prudence, valor, and piety 
moulder alongside of those of vice, imbecility, and despair. 
These sad relics of departed majesty, silent witnesses of long 
bygone days, connect the spectator with the busy period which, 
heightened by the present decay of Spain, appears in the " dark 
backward of time," to be rather some abstract dream of 
romance than a chapter of sober history: but these coffins make 
the past and present real ; and everything at Granada, art and 
nature alike — the Alhambra, the battle-field vega, the snowy 
sierra, towering above, more lofty and enduring than the pyra- 
mids — form the common monuments and the best histories of 
these, the true founders of their country's greatness. Then it 
was, in the words of an eye-witness, "that Spain spread her 
wings over a wider sweep of empire, and extended her name of 
glory to the far antipodes." Then it was that her flag, on 
which the sun never set, was unfolded, to the wonder and ter- 
ror of Europe, while a new world, boundless, and richer than 
the dreams of avarice, was cast into her lap, discovered at the 
very moment when the old world was becoming too confined for 
the outgrowth of the awakened intellect, enterprise, and ambi- 
tion of mankind. 

The interest of Granada, beyond the illustrious ruins of her 
Palace and a few articles of rare value and remote antiquity 
or the sacristy of the Cathedral, stops with the Moors the 
Alhambra and its hills. 



402 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

On the last evening which we spent at Granada, I lingered 
late watching the quiet beauties of its town, and in the seclud- 
ed portions of the city, sought to find new interests and pleas- 
ant views along the banks of the bubbling Darra and the lively 
Xenil. Shielded from the oblique rays of the declining sun, I 
sat under the shade of the noble and venerable elms that 
expanded their arms in natural arches over the walks of the 
citizens, and under that canopy of trees waited and watched 
with longing and eager eyes, but with a disburdened heart 
and glorious associations, while the forms of the Alhambra 
walls floated over the distant hills, seeming afar off to mark 
the horizon, behind which the sun was sinking. Beside me, the 
ever-blooming flowers of the Acacia and the blushing clusters 
of the rhododendron flung their graceful trellises of leaves 
and flowers, emitting but a slight perfume, which was rather the 
reflecting colors of odorous light, harmoniously blending with 
the eve, than the perfume of pleasant scent, and by their roots 
the play of fountains rushed in accordance with the running 
streams mingling amid the beauties of the scenes like the work- 
ings of fancy and fond thought amid the reveries of a dream. 
Under such a construction of loveliness and grace, and of 
wedded art and nature, it were impossible not to feel the delirium 
of transport which excites the poet and artist to thoughts of an 
inspired cast. Such an embodiment of beauty and of grace, 
of natural effects and suggested association, seemed a fit frame 
through which to view the glories of the past, it was calculated 
to revive the history of the Moors, the almost fabulous accounts 
of the Musselman's life, the pictures of the domestic comforts, 
the beautiful constructions of their houses, and to restore in 
fact the castles and towers, bastions, gateways, gardens, galle- 
ries, groves and pastures of that wonderful and warlike people. 



MEDITATIVE FANCIES. 403 



The sad picture of the present Spanish town contrasted mourn- 
fully with this picture, even as the ruins of the Alhambra were 
opposed to the former condition of perfection and order. Such 
eventides disposed the rambler to earnest and solemn medita- 
tion. A happy train of sentiment survives the turns of thought 
which course within that hour, and amid all the power of these 
sad and mournful reflections which brood over the mind, there 
is an effort and a relief in the consolation, that human life, no 
less than ruins, have their beautiful reflections of sunshine, vary- 
ing ever the opinions which checker our existence with their 
light and shady flecks, and opening to our waking and active 
perceptions, prospects and fruits of brighter realms and perpet- 
ual joy, amid the stern conflicts and harsh struggles of the 
w r orld, and pointing 

" Yet higher still to lights' first source aspire, 

"With eyes that never blink, and wings that never tire." 

Xothing can be more pleasing and interesting to those who 
relish the simple beauties of nature, than to walk by the side 
of living streams, to see the light playing and disappearing on 
the water, the green boughs waving their long streamers on the 
waves, the twigs and reeds bending and recovering themselves 
again, the glassy reflections on the deep, while shrub and trees 
of varied shape and foliage form a quivering and refreshing 
shade on the bank. Here is enough to fill the tasteful mind, 
and to invite the painter-poet to draw from such sources holy 
and pure inspiration. How various the views on the side of the 
stream of life. How dear to the heart the memory of the 
streams and bubbles of our boyhood. How meditative we 
become when we stand by them in old age. How like life is a 
river. 



404 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

The excursion to Soto de Roma, situated on the Xenil, about 
three leagues from Granada, and liable to constant injuries 
from inundations, has no intrinsic interest beyond that reflected 
on it by its illustrious owner, the late Duke of Wellington. 
This property is bounded on the west by the Sierra de 
Elvira, which rises like a throne of stone over the carpeted 
vega, through which a spring of water flows from the rock, 
gushing with its balm of healing for cutaneous complaints. 
It contains about 4000 acres, but the value of this estate has 
been greatly exaggerated in Spain; first from the natural habit 
of the Spaniards to romance ; then from a desire to exagge- 
rate the national gift to the Duke, and lastly, from not always 
knowing what they are talking about. 

Scarcely three days after the Duke had taken possession of 
of the "Soto" — "the Wood of Pomegranates" — before the 
tenants petitioned to Madrid, impugning the right of the Cortes 
to grant this property to a foreigner. Thus, said they, the 
" Soto is worth at least a million," until in and out of Spain it 
was considered an El dorado. In sober reality, however, the 
land is poor, and the house — this so-called " palace," — in 
England would not pass for a decent manor-farm. The Duke 
having received a better proportionate rent than the neigh- 
boring proprietors, the Dukes of Abrantes and San Lorenzo, 
simply because he was not robbed, caused them, in envy, backed 
by avarice, to circulate an evil report against O'Lawlor, his 
agent and manager.* "Esta atesorando," he is making his 
fortune, was the universal cry; and as most Spanish administra- 
dores in his place, which they coveted, would have done so, the 
belief in the lie was commensurate. El lad r on piensa que todos 
son de su condicion — the thief judges of others by himself. 

In truth, O'Lawlor has been a loser by the situation, which 



SANTA FE OF COLUMBUS. 405 

he held from pure love and respect to his great master. No 
Spanish government dared to promote him in the army or 
make him the Captain-General, while they feared his supposed 
wealth and influence. O'Lawlor, prudent for others, and eco- 
nomical in his habits, by an early investment of part of his 
rich wife's fortune in the most profitable lead-mines of Berja, 
has reaped the reward of order and wise speculation. He, like 
his master, has long treated with contempt the floating calum- 
nies of the "smaller deer," as Cosas de Esjpaha; but when they 
were published by Lord Londonderry, whose chivalrous charac- 
ter is a sufficient guarantee that his ear had been poisoned 
with incorrect accounts, he sent, through the Duke, who has 
always known his man, such an unanswerable answer as became 
the soldier and the gentleman. When, in consequence of his 
advanced age, he gave up his honorable charge, then only, in 
1846, was he made a Lieutenant-General — Alava, his col- 
league, having been promoted in 1814 ! 

The rambling old mansion at the Soto contains nothing 
worth seeing, the greengages in the garden excepted. The 
visitor, if on horseback, may cross the Xenil — that is, if there 
be no flood — and return to Granada by the now decayed 
agricultural village Santa Fe, the town built by Ferdinand and 
Isabella, while besieging Granada. The miserable spot was 
much shattered by an earthquake in 180*1. Here the capitu- 
lation of Granada was signed, and the original deed is at 
Simancas. It was dated at this town of "sacred faith" as 
if in mockery of the Punic perfidy with which every stipulation 
was subsequently broken. It was from Santa Fe that Colum- 
bus started to discover the New World, and also to find, when 
success had rewarded his toils, every pledge previously agreed 
upon scandalously disregarded. 



406 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 



ASCENT OF THE SIERRA NEVADA. 

The lover of Alpine scenery should by all means ascend 
the Sierra Nevada. The highest peak is the Mulahacen, so 
called from Boabdil's father. The next is El Picacho de la 
Veleta, the " watch-point," which appears to be loftier, because 
nearer to Granada, and of a conical, not a rounded shape. 
This eternal rampant of the lovely vega is very impressive : the 
sharp mother-o'-pearl outline cuts the blue sky; clear and 
defined, yet mysteriously distant, size, solitude, and sublimity 
are its characteristics. The adventurous are inspired to scale 
the heights and win the favors of this cold beauty, and she 
will be melted by such daring. The distance to this point is 
about twenty miles, and may be accomplished in nine hours. 

The night passed on these heights is piercing cold — "the 
air bites shrewdly;" but with a "provend" of blankets, and of 
good vino de Baza, it will kill no one. While beds are making 
for man and beast, the foragers must be sent to collect the dry 
plants and dead underwood, of which such a bonfire can be 
made as will make the Granadians below think the Picacho is 
going to be a volcano, probatum est. Xo diamonds ever 
sparkle like the stars on the deep firmament, seen from hence, 
at midnight, through the rarified medium. After the Prevesin 
begins the tug of war. For the first hour there is a sort of 
road, which may be ridden; the rest must be done on foot. 
The effects produced by he rarity tof the air on the lungs and 
body are not felt while seated on a mule; but now that 
muscular exertion is necessary, a greater strain is required than 
when in a denser atmosphere. The equilibration of air, which 
supports the bones as water does the fish, is wanting, and 



VIEW FROM THE PICACHO. 407 

the muscles have to bear the additional weight; hence the 
exhaustion. 

The Picacho is a small platform over a yawming precipice. 
Now w r e are raised above the earth, w r hich, wdth all its glories, 
lies like an opened map at our feet : w T hen the vapors ascend 
from the ocean, they are spread out beneath like a sea, out of 
w T hich the black pinnacles of lower mountains emerge like 
islands; when the thunder-storms roll below your feet, you 
look down even on the lightnings. Xow the eye travels over 
the infinite space, swifter than by railroad, comprehending it all 
at once. On one hand is the blue Mediterranean lake, wdth 
the faint outline even of Africa in the indistinct horizon. 
Inland, jagged sierras rise one over another, the barriers of the 
central Castiles. The cold sublimity of these silent eternal 
snows is fully felt on the very pinnacle of the Alps, which 
stands out in friendless state, isolated like a despot, and too 
elevated to have anything in common with aught below. On 
this barren wind-blown height vegetation and life have ceased, 
even the last lichen or pale violet, which, blooming like beauty 
on the verge of ruin, w r astes its sweetness wherever a stone 
offers shelter from the snow; thousands of winged insects lie 
frozen in this shroud, each in its little cell, having thawed 
itself a grave wdth its last warmth of life. In the scarped and 
soil-denuded heights the eagle builds ; she must have mountains 
for her eyrie. Here she reigns unmolested on her stony 
throne; and lofty as are these peaks above the earth, these 
birds, towering above, are mere specks in the blue heaven. 

THE RETURN. 

Early before sunrise we left Granada, taking the same road 



408 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

as that by which we had entered. It was on a lovely morning, 
and just when the first touches of the rosy-fingered Aurora 
were penciling- the peaks of the Nevada with hues of flushing 
beauty, and entoning the fleecy clouds of vapor that rolled 
from off the mountain tops, like puffs of perfumed incense from 
sacrificial fires. The opening dawn cast a pink veil over the 
emerald green of the vega, and spreading its length beyond its 
borders, burnished the towers of the receding city, and then 
burst with full splendor upon the vermilion tower of the 
Alhambra. 

After crossing the hill of La Mala, Granada ceases to be 
seen, and hence the spot, not far from this, is called, El ultimo 
suspiro del Moro, for here Boabdil, January 2, 1492, sighed his 
last farewell. 

The banner of Santiago floated on his red towers, and 
all was lost. Behind was an Eden, like the glories of his past 
reign ; before, a desert, cheerless as the prospects of a dethroned 
king. Then, as tears burst from his water-filled eyes, he was 
reproached by 'Ayeshah, his mother, whose rivalries had caused 
the calamity. " Thou dost well to weep like a woman for that 
which thou hast not defended like a man." When this anec- 
dote was told to Charles Y., " She spake well," observed the 
Emperor, "for a tomb in the Alhambra is better than a palace 
in the Alpuj arras." Thither, and to Purchena, Boabdil retired, 
but not for long. He sickened in his exile, and, passing over 
into Africa, is said to have been killed in a petty battle, thus 
losing his life for another's quarrel. Gayangos, however, (Moh. 
D. ii. 390,) has ascertained that he lived at Fez until 1538, leav- 
ing children. His posterity was long to be traced there, but re- 
duced to the lowest poverty, existing as beggars on the charity 
doled out at the mosque-doors ! a sad reverse of fortune, and a 



ROUND THE MARCHAN SWEEPS. 409 



melancholy conclusion of the brilliant Mahommedan dynasty 
in Spain. 

Do not return to Granada by the same road; but, passing 
through the pretty village of Otrusa, cross the rivulet Dilar 
to Zubia, to which, during the siege, Isabella rode to have 
a view of the Alhambra : while she halted in the house with 
Claude-like miradores, a Moorish sally was made, and she was 
in much danger. In memory of her escape she erected a her- 
mitage to the Virgin, who appeared visibly for her protection, 
and it still remains amid its cypresses. Returning home, just 
on entering the avenue of the Xenil, to the left, on its banks, 
is San Sebastian, once a Moorish Caaba, to which Ferdinand 
and Isabella accompanied Boabdil on the day of Granada's 
surrender. — Read the inscription let into the wall. The extra- 
ordinary Alamo, or tree, under which the first mass was said, 
stood here, but was cut down by some barbarians in 1160. 

Nothing occurred to vary our return journey until within a 
few miles of Alhama, except the never-failing varieties on the 
mountain scenery, and we visited with pleasure some pleasant 
spots near the baths which we had omitted to see on our way 
out. I stopped an hour to bathe in the circular bath, which still 
runs with tepid water as in the time of the cleanly Romans and 
Moors. The stream which fills these baths gushed from out 
of one of these awful chasms in the hills which are peculiar 
to this Alpine district, and affords fearful traces of strong geo- 
logical convulsions, and points of great scenic beauty. Having 
passed through the town of Alhama by night, I had now the 
pleasure of remarking the prominent features of this curious 
old city — the land-key of Granada. The place is wild and pic- 
turesque, and perched on the edge of an awful rent in the hills 
round w r hich the Marchan sweeps. The situation is fearful, and 

18 



410 TRACES )F THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

it broods over the abyss of the precipice upon which it leans 
securely, almost ready to tumble into the gulf beneath. There 
is a fine aqueduct in the square, and the sierras which back it 
rise to the height of 8000 feet. At this point we were joined 
by a commercial party from Malaga, who had been engaged in 
making purchases of wheat in the districts around this point, 
and with them we returned back to Yelez Malaga, passing over 
the picturesque and grand Sierras of Alhama, and the bold 
chain of the Alpujarras. 

We were pleased in finding so much novelty and variety to 
interest us while retracing our steps to this point. Such are 
the peculiar effects of light and position on landscape, and so 
much have circumstances and companionship to do with the 
agreeableness of travel, that the attractions of natural scenery 
are proportioned to the various dispositions and tempers of the 
traveler, even in going over a twice-trodden track. So amid 
these Salvator-Rosa like gorges which the waters have forced 
through the mountain, where the rocks rise up on each side 
like terrific perpendicular walls, the traveler passes like the 
Israelites, with his pillar of sunshine and cloud ; at times cross- 
ing through lonely depths where the sun never enters, and again 
emerging in a broad flood of fiery sunshine in the wilderness. 

We had reached Yelez Malaga about nine o'clock in the 
evening ; but what a dreadful night I spent at the old inn, on 
the floor of the second story, and in horrible torment under the 
attacks and inflictions of the gnats and musquitos that infested 
my chamber, scarcely having slept a wink during the whole 
night. Ramon roused me in the morning by daylight, and I was 
glad to escape from this pest-house into the cool and refreshing 
air of the morning. Our early start soon brought us to the 
sea-side, and on our road to Malaga Proper. Then, for the 



MULES LADEN WITH RAISINS. 411 

first time, I obtained a fair view of the charming sea-views that 
enhance the ride along the coast, and render this path one of 
the most delightful in Spain. The littoral was very picturesque, 
the eye embraces both the marine and inland prospects, and 
the. entire region abounds in objects of interest and study, which 
are presented by the culture of the land, the characteristic of 
the strata, the habits of the people, and the peculiar traffic of 
the country. During the whole morning we were entertained 
by troops of merry muleteers whom we passed on the way, 
and as we listened to the wild choruses and their fitful shouts 
to the mules, which were laden with boxes of fresh Malaga 
raisins, we lacked no society on our return to the port. The 
narrow bridle-run which led over the hills soon brought us 
within sight of our destination, and shortly after sunrise the 
the delights of our journey were crowned by the picturesque 
portion of Malaga resting on its bay, as it lay hemmed in by 
the circuits of its own native hills, and the bordering spurs of 
the Alhama beyond. After such a trot, overcome by the 
fatigues of a hurried journey, and still lingering under the 
ravages of the insects, how refreshing and grateful it was to be 
quietly settled at the inn of the Alameda !" 

Having spent a delightful evening in the society of Mr. Carr, 
our former Consul at Tripoli, who amused us in Mr. King's 
room by a recital of his life and adventures in Africa, I arose 
in the morning and made preparations for my departure by 
the steamer. 

September found me leaving the harbor of Malaga, with a 
full view of the port and the town. The weather was a little 
rough after the storm of the previous night. Our vessel 
steamed gallantly out to sea, but after taking her course still 
hugged the shore during the passage. The coast was kept 



412 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

constantly in sight during the day, and gave us a clear view 
of the magnificent borders of rocks which limit Spain on the 
southern part of her territory. Owing to the prevalence of a 
head-wind we made little progress during the first day, and 
except the ever-varying outline of the magnificent mountains 
on the coast, the experience of our first journal would have 
been very monotonous. 

We scarcely touched at the Bay of Almeria, as we steamed 
along on the second day. This port, under both Roman and 
Moor, was the great port of traffic between Italy and the 
East, and one of the richest manufacturing towns ; but, under 
its Moorish independent chief, Ibn Maymam, it was a perfect 
Algiers, a pirate port, whose galleys ravaged the coasts of 
France and Italy. It is no longer, as once sang its Arabian 
eulogist, "a land where if thou walkest, the stones are pearls, 
the dust gold, and the gardens paradise." Some little bustle 
has been given to the decay by the arrival of the steamers as 
they pass up and down the coast; and the walls of a pic- 
turesque Moorish castle which backs the town, repaired by 
Charles V., running up and down the declivities, lend an aspect 
of interest and revival to the port. Passing the point of 
Almeria, the next point of attraction was the Cabo de Gatas — 
" Cape Agate." It is a rock formed of crystals, spars, and 
agates, where amethysts sometimes are found. The traveler 
will recollect the landmark on this wind cape, since, according 
to the nautical adage, "At Cape de Gat, take care of your 
hat." About noon we moored inside of the wild and dreary 
" Point of the Eagles," a small place of two intersecting streets, 
which nestled at the foot of a rock and a castle, where we took 
in some silver, the produce of the mines which were worked in 
the Sierra of Almazarron, at some distance back of this town. 



HARBOR OF CARTAGENA.. 413 

The mines were discovered by a poor weaver of Cartagena, 
named Valentin, who, under the pretence of shooting, passed 
his days here, until near a ridge or dip he found specimens, 
which, being assayed at Cordova, were found to be galena or 
argentiferous lead. He imparted his secret to a townsman 
named Soler, as ignorant as himself of their true value. At 
last poor Valentin died, and Soler formed a club to work them; 
and having obtained a grant from the crown, with a competent 
engineer, the shares soon after rose from 150 dollars to 60,000. 
This sudden acquisition of wealth attracted thousands of com- 
petitors. What seven years ago was a wild and dreary waste, 
is now studded with buildings, traced into roads, crowded with 
laborers, and nine smelting furnaces erected upon it. 

Although we reached the harbor of Cartagena about dark, 
we were not permitted to land until the next morning at ten. 
This town, which nourished under the Romans, who called 
it, " Colonia Victrix Julia," is now much decayed. Its admi- 
rable port, scooped out by the mighty hand of nature, alone 
remains the same; owing nothing to the care of man, nor 
to be spoiled by his neglect : it is the best on this eastern and 
harborless coast, and was ranked with July and August by the 
admiral of Philip II., when the monarch demanded which was 
his safest harbor : here even the navy of England might ride. 
It is accurately described by Virgil, (JEn. i. 163,) " Est in 
secessu longo locus," etc. The hills which fringe the bay 
render it land-locked. 

The best street is the Calle Major. Ruin, neglect, and 
emptiness prevail everywhere, and the traveler is pained while 
he walks round the silent quays and parade at the head of the 
harbor, and beholds the fine marine school, a building better 
than its pupils. The fortifications, barracks, hospitals, arsenals, 



414 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

extensive rope-walks, foundries, basins, and dock-yards are fine; 
all that is wanting is life. The town is dull and unhealthy, and 
the water brackish. The view from the heights of La Atalaya 
is superb and sweeps the port. However torpid man and water, 
and the elements of hatred against their neighbor, Murcia 
burns fiercely. They have never forgotten or forgiven the 
removal of the see. 

On leaving the province of Murcia, a metal-pregnant district, 
it is as well to state here, that, although thinly populated and 
almost a desert in the parts which lack water, the Huertas 
compensate by their prodigious fertility, producing the palm, 
orange and carob tree, silk, soda, bass-grass, red-peppers, and 
rich wines. Its mines enabled the family of Hannibal to make 
war against Rome itself. Under the Moors, Mursiah became 
one continuous garden, and hence was called El Bostan, as 
well as Misr, Egypt, to which it was compared. This province, 
lying in an out-of-the-way corner, is considered by Spaniards to 
be the Bceotia of the south. Few illustrious have ever been 
produced in this Dunciad. The lower classes, chiefly agricul- 
tural, are alternately sluggish and laborious. Their physiog- 
nomy is African, superstitious, litigious and revengeful; they 
remark of themselves and province, that the earth and climate 
are good, but all that is between them is bad. El cielo y suelo 
es bueno — el entre suelo malo. 

Nightfall found us on the road-stead of Alicante; but 
Spanish dilatoriness and their proverbial punctilio compelled 
us to delay our entry into the town, until we were waited 
upon by the authorities of the port, on the following morning. 

Alicante — Arabice transparent — lies under its rock-crowned 
castle, and it is not seen until closely approached. It is 
defended by a strong outwork, el Castillo de Fernando, by the 



NO WINTER ALL SUMMER. 415 

advice of the English, who paid for it. Salt-fish, wines, 
almonds and coarse raisin, with potash for the linens of 
Ireland, form the commerce of this port. The wines are rich, 
with a rough taste combined with sweetness; they are used to 
doctor thin clarets for the British market. The "Huerta," or 
garden, is very fertile. The olives are fine and the carob-trecs 
numerous and productive. Here the succession of crops never 
ceases. There is no winter; one continual summer reigns in 
this paradise of Ceres and Pomona : but the immediate envi- 
rons are arid and unproductive, and the swampy coast toward 
Cartagena breeds plagues of flies, fevers and dysenteries, which 
the immoderate use of the Sandia, or water-melon, encourages. 
Its trade is no longer what it was. This key of Valencia 
rose in consequence of its castle, which protected ii from the 
Algerine pirates, The castle is now in poor order, and not 
worth seeing. We remained here all day. We entered into 
the City Hall, which is an elegant building, and found good 
society in a reading-room, where there was a collection of good 
books, and a few newspapers. Their Colegiata, being dedicated 
to San Nicolas, brought back pleasing memories of the Knick- 
erbockers and Manhattan. Our " Old Nick/' the patron of 
Alicante, (as well as of New York,) is or was the portioner 
of poor virgins, and a model of fasters, for, according to 
Ribadneyra, when a baby he never, during Lent, sucked before 
the evening, and only once on Wednesdays and Fridays. That, 
no doubt, accounts for the custom of childrens' hanging their 
stockings up on the night before Christmas, and for holidays 
on Wednesdays, and hanging on Fridays ! The town was very 
prettily situated under the lee of the impending hills, and the 
shelter of its castle, which had been partially destroyed by the 
French, but we were particularly struck with the singular 



41 G TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

costume of the peasantry, which appeared to resemble that of 
the Neapolitans. The low, button-tipped hat is changed for a 
small cap, worn hanging on one side of the head. The male 
costume is antique and Asiatic. The many-colored plaid is 
cast over the right shoulder ; the men wear the hempen sandal, 
and their legs are either naked, or covered with stockings 
without feet. Bragas, or large, loose and short linen drawers, 
of classical Roman origin, are a substitute for breeches; the 
upper man is clothed with a velvet or gaudy jacket, with open 
shirt sleeves, while their waists are girdled by a gay silken 
sash, or faga. The head and their long, lanky, red, Indian- 
like hair is bound with a silk handkerchief, which looks in the 
distance like a turban. 

This Valencia, although one of the smallest provinces in 
Spain, yields in fertility and delight to none. The mountains 
abound in marbles and minerals. Cinnabar is found in the 
Crevicta; iron in many places; marbles and jaspers at Cervera; 
and lead at Zeldo. To invalids and consumptive patients the 
climate is far superior to that of Italy; there is a most 
delicious softness in the air, which is so dry withal, that salt 
undergoes no change. Frosts are almost unknown, whilst the 
sea-breeze tempers the summer-heats, and the fresh mountains 
offer verdurous retreats. The Huerta, most truly the garden, 
is irrigated by the Turia, or Guadalaviar — the white river. 
This great vein is so drained or bled, that when it reaches the 
capital, it is almost as dry. The Moors bequeathed to the 
Yalencians their hydraulic science, by which they exercised a 
magic control of water; wielding at their bidding, they could 
do all but call clown the rains from heaven, that best of all 
irrigations. The network of artificial canals is admirable. 
We have dwelt longer than usual on this head, because the 



PROCESS OF IRRIGATING LANDS. 4H 



Royal Canal on the Incar, and the whole water system deserves 
the closest examination of our engineers and architects. The 
artist will find happy subjects for his pencil in the picturesque 
noria and the large water-wheel, which, armed with jars, 
descends into the well, and as it rises discharges the contents 
into a reservoir. In the Huerta of Valencia, the main trunk 
supplies all the smaller veins. Thus irrigated, the rich, alluvial 
plain, which basks in the never-failing irritating sun, knows no 
agricultural repose; man is never weary of sowing, nor the 
sun in calling into life. The produce, even when the land is 
poor, is almost incredible. Thus, in one year, four, nay, five 
crops are raised in succession. Rice is the great cereal staple. 
The culture was introduced by the Moors, and the grain enters 
largely into the national cuisine of the Yalencians, in their 
pilafs and polios con arrcz — pullets in rice. 

The province produces wine, oil, barrilla, esparto, hemp, flax, 
cochineal, and fruits, especially figs, almonds, dates, oranges 
and grapes. The honey is also delicious. Silk is another 
staple, and the Huerta is covered with white mulberry, " food 
for worms." The animal spins its cocoon, and is then destroyed 
in boiling water; the process is nasty; but as the peasants, 
seated under their vines and figs, wind out the golden tissue, 
the picture is perfect. The Raso and black silk, for mantillas 
and say as } is equal to anything in Europe. The profusion of 
mulberries has rendered the purple color of the fruit, the 
morado, a favorite one with the painters of Valencia, the 
makers of azalejos and stained glass, just as the rich brown 
olla color of Seville was with Murillo in Andalucia, or the 
chorize tint with Morales in Estramadura. Valencia is defi- 
cient in animal and cereal productions; corn and cattle are 
brought from the Castiles and Aragon. The over-irrigation 

18* 



418 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

diminishes the flavor of the vegetables, which lose in quality 
what they gain in quantity. Hence the proverb allusive to the 
aqueous, unsubstantial character of Yalencian men, women, 
and things: La came es yerba, la yerba agua, el homhre mujer, 
la mager nadaP This is a mere play upon words, for these 
ethereal women, whose minds and bodies are supposed to 
evaporate, are much more than nothing, and the cuisine is 
excellent. Those who eat the national u Polios con arroz" will 
never talk more about the mere " idea of a dinner," facetious 
travelers to the contrary notwithstanding; as for the women, 
they will speak for themselves. 

The sea-coast, like that of the west of the Peninsula, is the 
terror of mariners. 

The upper classes are among the most polished of Spain, and 
the Yalencian has always distinguished himself in art and 
literature. Under the Moors this province was the repository 
of theological science ; under the Spaniards it boasts of San 
Vicente, whose miracles have employed the Yalencian artists; 
and of the learned divine, Juan Luis Yives, the Spanish Bacon, 
who lived and learned in Oxford, and was the friend of Eras- 
mus. Yalencia is also proud of her poet, Christobal Virues, 
and of Guillon de Castro, the dramatist; while her Juanes, 
Rlbalto, Ribera, Orrente and March, form a school of painters 
second only to that of Seville. 

The lower classes are fond of pleasure, the song, and the 
dance, their " roundabout" rondalla ; the national dance is 
called la fiera. They dance well, and to the tamboril and 
dulzana, a sort of Moorish clarionet, requiring strong lungs 
and ears. 

In darker shades of character the Valencians resemble both 
their Celtiberian and Carthaginian ancestors; they are cunning, 



YALEXCIAX WOMEN. 419 



perfidious, vindictive, sullen and mistrustful, fickle and treacher- 
ous. Theirs is a sort of tiger-monkey character, of cruelty 
allied to frivolity; so blithe, so smooth, so gay, yet empty of 
all good : nor can their pleasantry be trusted, for, like the 
Devil's good humor, it depends on their being pleased; at the 
least rub, they pass, like the laughing hyena, into a snarl and 
bite: nowhere is assassination more common; they smile, and 
murder while they smile. The infamous Caesar Borgia was a 
true Valencian, as were his chosen sicarios and bravos: their 
leader, Michalot de Prades, has bequeathed his name to the 
armed company of Migueletes. 

Their physiognomy is African. The burning sun not only 
tans their complexions, but excites their nervous system; hence 
they are highly irritable, imaginative and superstitious. Their 
great joys and relaxations are religious shows, pasos, pageants-, 
processions, cars, acted miracles and church spectacles. The 
Miracles of San Vicente Ferrer, the tutelar of the city, ranks 
first among these street festivals, in which little children play 
a great part, dressed like angels, and really looking like those 
creatures of which Heaven is composed, although some of them 
grow up to be devils incarnate. The Dia de Corpus, or pro- 
cession of Christ present in the Sacrament, is the sight of Spain, 
and accordingly has always been brought out to amuse the 
princes, whenever they chanced to be in Valencia. On one 
occasion, Fedinand VII., the beloved, having expressed a pious 
curiosity, the incarnate Deity, locally present, as they believe, 
was paraded out to amuse such a mortal. 

The Valencian women, especially those of the middle and 
better classes in the capital, are by no means so dark cora- 
plexioned as their mates ; singularly well-formed, they are 
among the prettiest and most fascinating in all Spain. They 



420 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

sit at work in the open streets, and as they wear nothing on 
their heads but their hair, " their glory," they have rather a 
dressy look. Their ornaments are most classical ; the roll of 
hair is pierced with a silver-gilt pin ; they wear also the silver- 
gilt comb, and one of a singular triangular-shape, called la llase, 
and the cross. As they are very superstitious, talismans and 
little horns and hands are carried about the person, the old 
phallic antidote for the evil eye, el mal de ojo, which is as much 
dreaded here as among the Moors and Neapolitans. 

One of our companions, who had accompanied us thus far, 
left us, and started for the interior in a peculiar-shaped vehicle 
that resembled a covered butcher's cart, or an ungreased and 
canopied Irish jaunting-car running on two wheels, and con- 
ducted or drawn by one horse : this is the preferred mode of 
locomotion among the middle classes of this province, and it is 
uncommonly well suited to the roads. 

We left Alicante about four o'clock in the afternoon, and 
were towed out from the shore to the steamer, which lay tossing 
about and exposed to the open sea in the roadstead, and early 
on the following morning we arrived at the port of Valencia. 
Having landed I hired a tartan a, the common Valencian 
vehicle, which resembles a dark-green covered cart : the type 
is the Turkish Araha. It may be compared to a Venetian 
gondola on wheels, and, like that, though forbidding-looking, 
often contains a deal of fun, like mourning coaches when the 
funeral is over. The name is taken from a sort of felucca, or 
Mediterranean craft. 

Riding away from the Grao in this go-cart, I was quickly 
drawn through the Huerta, covered with shade trees, until we 
entered the city by the Gate of the Cid, which is situated near 
the largest tobacco-factory of the place, having first crossed a 



FIRST THING THE CID DID. 421 



bridge suspended over the now dry Turia. As I bad engaged 
my driver for the day, I struck a path immediately for the 
Cathedral, determined to see the only and great lion of this 
Valencia del Cid. Now the first thing which the Cid did, on 
capturing Valencia, was to take his wife and daughters up to a 
height, and show them all the glories. Ascend, then, with me 
the Cathedral tower, which is called El Micalcte, because of 
its bells, which were first hung on St. Michael's Feast. This 
isolated octagonal Gothic belfry, is built with a brownish 
stone, 162 feet high, and disfigured by a modern top. The 
panorama thence is very striking, the bright sky itself is wonder 
enough: it is a glimpse of the glory of heaven, an atmosphere of 
golden light which Murillo alone could paint, when wafting his 
blessed Yirgin into paradise. The air is also so clear and dry 
that distant objects appear as if quite close. See how the town 
is disposed in the map at your feet. The streets are so narrow 
that the openings scarcely appear amid the irregular close- 
packed roofs, of which many are flat with cane-cages for pigeons, 
of which the Yalencians are great fanciers and shooters. No 
portion of Spain presents so fertile an aspect as the green 
carpet of the Huerta surrounding the city on all sides, and 
stretching its velvet beauties even to the sea-shore. The spires 
rise thickly amid blue and white-tiled domes ; to the north are 
the hills of Marviedo, and the mountains of Saguntum, the 
Huerta is studded with farm-houses and cottages thatched like 
tents. This view, in extent and beauty, is without parallel in 
Europe ; its culture of the rice-fields, and their rolls of vivid 
verdure reminded me of the great plains of Lombardy. In 
Michilate is the great bell, La Vela, which, like that of the 
Alhambra, gives warning of irrigation periods. 

The cathedral has little to attract internally save its Corin- 



422 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

thian pulpit of carved walnut, and some few paintings of the 
celebrated masters. Its original Gothic has been marred by 
the frequent attemps to modernize its inside and out, while its 
low interior roof spoils the effect of the naves. Behind the cir- 
cular end is the gay and gaudy chapel of Muestra Seiiora de los 
Desamparados, the Yirgin of the unprotected, to w T hom the 
generals applied in times of danger, instead of putting their 
shoulders to the wheel. When the French entered Yalencia, 
this image of the Yirgin wore three gold bars, the emblems of 
the rank of Captain-General. The Marques de los Palacios, 
commander of the city, took no other steps of defence than 
laying his baton at its feet. It was then carried in procession 
round the walls, the whole population exclaiming, " The divine 
mother will protect us !" 

Continuing our drive through some of the principal streets, 
>ve found our way to the Calk de los Caballeros, the aristocratic 
street. The Yalencian houses are substantially built, and have 
an air of solid nobility. A large portal opens into the pateo, 
with arched colonnades, which are frequently elliptical ; the 
staircases are remarkable for their rich banisters, and the win- 
dows are either Gothic or formed in the Ajimez style, with a 
single slender shaft dividing the aperture ; the long lines of 
open arcades under the roofs give an Italian lightness. When- 
ever a house is taken down, it is obliged to be set back, with a 
view of widening the street. The rebuilt mansions are uniform 
and common-place, with rows of balconies. None should omit 
visiting the collection del Peluguero, Plaza San Yicente. This 
hair-dresser, Pedro Perez, has filled his house with an omnium 
gatherum of art and antiquity. The pictures are not of a high 
class, although the geese here are all swans. The least bad 
are at the top of the house — a Christ Teaching, Leonardo (?); 



A LEARNED BARBER. 423 



a Christ Scourged, Morales (?); a Christ and Soldiers, Velaz- 
quez (?); a Xeiio Dios and Saint John, MareOo (?). The 
Spanish and Celtiberian coins were good until the good peru- 
quier polished off the venerable aerugo, lathering and shaving 
them, as it were — a common fate in Spain, when offered for 
sale to foreigners by peasants, who, with a view to commending 
their wares, polish them bright, and rub off the precious bloom, 
the patina and aerugo, the very thing which makes them valua- 
ble to the antiquary — the sacred rust of twice ten hundred 
years. This numismatic Figaro is himself, however, like old 
Tradescant, the most curious of his rarities. This Figaro of 
taste has lately laid aside his razors, having been appointed 
" Conserge " to the Academy of Koble Arts of San Carlos, 
Plaza de las Barcas, where are some secondary objects of art, 
and bad pictures with good names, and some portraits of the 
poets from the monastery Murta. A barber, however, is a 
personage in this land of Figaro. Suchet, too, who shaved 
Yalencia pretty well, began life as an apprentice to a peru- 
quier. In the Calle San Vicente lives a hatter, el Sombrerero, 
who has also some barbaric pictures, which he shows readily to 
strangers. 

We knew two similar characters in America, both of whom 
were celebrities in their respective towns. Piatt Evans, a 
tailor, of Cincinnati, has built a bijoux of a house on one of the 
main streets, and having filled it with objects of virtu and art, 
takes a pride in showing his gallery of paintings and curiosities 
to any stranger who happens to visit him in the West. Truly 
all his geese have been turned into swans by his industry; and 
his well peopled aviary, on the top of his house, is a palace of 
singing birds. 

Every one is familiar with the renown of the celebrated 



424 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

Dowse, of Cambridgeport, another creditable instance of the 
cultivation of letters and art amid the toil and cares of daily 
mechanical labor. Mr. Dowse, by dint of industry and good 
fortune, had not only succeeded in accumulating a small and 
valuable gallery of water-colors, which had been painted for the 
British Academy, but in obtaining the ownership of the best 
part of Bishop Heber's library. By adding daily to his stock 
every elegant edition as it issued from his booksellers, he had at 
length procured a collection which is second to few in this 
country. To the honor of his sound and good judgment, it is 
well known that he reads them. 

The future possession of so rich and precious a treasure had 
necessarily led to an inquiry as to its probable fate after his 
demise. With due apology to this amiable gentleman and 
scholar for suggesting even a hint at his dissolution, I would 
close this notice by a current anecdote, which would be likely 
to allay any curiosity thus excited. 

The faculty of Harvard, it seems, once held this question of 
inheritance under discussion, a proposition having been made, 
as reported, that the conferring of a high college honor would 
in a degree compensate for the translation of this library into 
Gore Hall. The high sense of the dignity of the University 
arose to prevent the grant of an application which savored 
somewhat of the taint of a bribe ; and the sages in council were 
at a loss to conceive how the title of L. L. D. could be properly 
granted to one whose pretensions to learning were chiefly based 
on his peculiar skill in the dressing of sheep skin. " It can not 
be done," said one professor : "Non detur," spoke another. The 
president shook his head like Jove. "Ha! ha!" exclaimed 
the amiable Justice Story, rubbing his hands, and raising his 
spectacles ; " Why not, gentlemen ? Why not in all equity 



MISERERE ON FRIDAY. 425 



give him the L. L. D. ? It is proper : don't you see that it 
stands for Literary Leather Dresser ?" 

The learned Dowse still lives at the port of Cambridge, and 
the stand-post sign, surmounted by a wooden sheep, remains 
in front of the store, quite on a level with the library on the 
second floor ; and Gore Hall yet survives, lifting its granite 
towers upon the college green, and sullenly, solemnly and 
silently looms up toward the sky like an old feudal castle in 
the middle ages. 

The Colegio de Corpus, or del Patriarca, is a museum of 
Ilibaltas. He is generally called " El Santo Rihera^ having 
been canonized in 179T. The noble Corinthian chapel of the 
college was built by Anton del Rey, after, it is said, a plan of 
Herrera. It is somewhat dark, the windows being very small ; 
the walls again are "blacked through the smoke" of the 
incense ; but the daylight was purposely excluded by desire 
of the founder, who wished to give the impressiveness of reli- 
gious obscurity to the ceremonies. The miserere on a Friday 
morning is one of the most impressive services of Spain : be 
there at ten, as soon after the darkling chapel is rendered 
darker by drawing blinds over the windows and shutting the 
doors, to exclude also the idle trifler : the whole space above 
the high altar is now covered with a purple pall, the color of 
mourning ; none stand near it save the silent choristers ; next 
an aged priest approaches and prostrates himself; then all 
kneel on the ground, and the solemn chant begins. At the 
first verse the picture above the altar descends by a noiseless 
unseen machinery, and the vacancy is supplied by a lilac veil 
with yellow stripes ; as the chant proceeds this is withdrawn, 
and discloses one of a faint gray, which, when removed disco- 
vers another of deep black, and then after a lengthened pause 



426 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

. . m 

another and the last. The imagination is thus worked up into' 
a breathless curiosity, which is heightened by the tender feeling 
breathed out in that most beautiful of penitential psalms. 
Then at once the last veil of the temple is, as it were, rent 
asunder, and the Saviour appears dying on the cross ; a sepul- 
chral light is cast on the brow, on w T hich a sweat of agony 
seems to mantle, while "the shadow of death hangs on the 
eyelid." (Job 16:16.) It is the reality of the. Crucifixion, and 
is too harrowing to be long looked at ; but soon a distant quire 
of silvery voices strikes up, and the pall is closed again over a 
spectacle which is not to be profaned by irreverent or length- 
ened curiosity. 

The sculptor should examine this crucifix as a work of art ; 
and by application to the rector, and a fee to the sacristan, it 
can be seen in the afternoon, when the chapel is closed to the 
public ; get a ladder and lights, and then will be revealed the 
ropes and contrivances by which all this solemn scene-shifting 
is managed. The carving is one of the finest in Spain, but 
nothing is known of its origin. It belonged to the founder, 
and was placed here by his express order, as a relic, from the 
number of miracles which it worked. The material is a dark 
wood ; the feet, extremities, and anatomy are very fine : 
observe the broad modeling of the forehead, and the lines 
about the mouth, where character resides ; as death is here 
represented, the absence of life, which is so felt in painted 
sculpture, does not offend. 

The whole church deserves a careful inspection, as here 
Ribalta is properly to be estimated : in the first chapel to the 
left is one of his masterpieces, and painted in a style between 
Titian and Vandyke ; u San Vicente de Ferrer, visited on his 
sick bed by our Saviour and Saints f he rises on his pallet, his 



SPAGN0LETT0 ARTIST. 421 



expression of humble gratitude contrasts with the kindness and 
sympathy exhibited towards,, him ; the light is unfortunately 
bad. 

Since the suppression of the convents a national museum has 
been established in the former Carmen, where the great Yalen- 
cian school may really be studied and appreciated : it contains 
600 or 700 pictures, of which the vast majority are worthless. 
The chief painters to be observed are Yicente Juanes, the 
Spanish Raphael ; then Francisco de Ribalta, who is the Span- 
ish Domenichino and Sebastian del Piombo combined. He was 
the painter of San Yicente de Ferrer, i. e., a local painter of a 
local subject ; just as Murillo was of the Conception, so wor- 
shipped by Sevillians. There is a picture, probably by Ribalta, 
in Magdalen Chapel, Oxford, although even his name has not 
penetrated into those cloisters, and the picture is ascribed to 
artists with whose works it has not even a remote resemblance. 

Another great Yalencian, Josef Ribera, (Spagnoletto,) was 
a pupil of Ribalta. He painted cruel martyr subjects in a 
decided Caravaggio style of marked shadows and lights. Pedro 
Orrente, the Bassano of Spain, and as monotonous and multi- 
plied, was born at Monte Alegre about 1560, and died at 
Toledo, 1644. He principally painted cattle and Adorations 
of Shepherds : although he was a mannerist, he colored his low 
subjects well ; he was the master of Pablo Pontons, whose pic- 
tures are seldom seen out of Yalencia, and of Esteban March, 
a painter of battle-pieces, who died here in 1660 ; both these 
imitated the Bassanos through Orrente. These pastoral pic- 
tures are as tiresome as pastoral poetry, which then was all the 
fashion : Scripture was degraded by peasant forms ; angels 
became accessories to cattle ; there may be the merit of truth 
to ordinary nature, but divine subjects require a more epic 



428 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

treatment. The Zarifienas are another Valencian family of 
painters of second-rate merit. Yalencia has produced no great 
sculptor. 

Among the best pictures by Juanes are three pictures of our 
Saviour : observe especially that from Santo Domingo, in a 
violet dress ; a magnificent San Francisco de Paula, in a brown 
dress leaning on his staff, from Los Minimos. Remark, by 
Ribalta, San Yicente Preaching, from Santo Domingo ; San 
Francisco, from Los Capuchinos ; a Cardinal, by Espinosa ; a 
Holy Family ; a St. Jerome ; an Assumption, from Santo 
Domingo; a San Jose, from Los Agostinos ; by El Bosco 
(Jerome Bosch of Bois le Due), the three singular pictures 
from Santo Domingo — the Crowning with Thorns, the Christ 
at the Pillar, and in the Garden : inquire for the altar of 
Jaime I., with its singular old paintings. 

Visit the church of San Juan to see the celebrated Concep- 
cion, or La Parisima, which formerly was in the Compania, 
having been painted for los Jesuitas, and under the following 
circumstances : — The Virgin appeared in person to the Jesuit 
Martin de Alvaro, and desired him to have her painted exactly 
as he 'then beheld her. He applied to Juanes, giving all the 
details of the vision ; the artist, after many failures, by the 
advice of Alvaro, confessed and went through a long religious 
exercise, and then produced this picture ; the Yirgin, when it 
was finished, descended from heaven and expressed herself satis- 
fied. Charles IY. wished to remove it to Madrid when he 
founded her order, but refrained from fears of a popular out- 
break. The figure is colossal, but the expression is meek and 
innocent : on each side are emblems and mottoes allusive to 
her manifold perfections. 

The principal plaza, called El Mercado, is in the heart of the 



GOTHIC SILK HALL. 429 



city, and contains its only fountain. Here the Cid and Sucliet 
executed their prisoners without trial or mercy. The market is 
well supplied, and the costume of the peasants very picturesque. 
Here is the Lonja de Seda, the silk hall, a beautiful Gothic 
building of 1842. The saloon is magnificent, and supported by 
spirally-fluted columns. This is the chamber of commerce, and 
has a pretty court attached to it, where the beautiful Gothic 
windows, medallions, with heads and coronet-like battlements, 
are much to be admired. 

Valencia abounds in pleasant walks; among which are the 
Paseo de la Glorieta, laid out and planted by Elio, who converted 
it into a garden of Hesperus, a locality made desert by Suchet ; 
and one that leads to the river, or rather the river-bed, for it is 
so drained for irrigation, that, excepting at the period of the 
rains, it scarcely suffices for washerwomen. Crossing over the 
bridge of La Trinidad, a massy construction, with strong piers, 
which seems a sinecure, from the want of water underneath, 
you reach the site of El Real, the royal residence of the vice- 
roys, which was pulled down in the wars, and the space since 
converted into a pleasant plantation. The river now divides 
the Glorieta from the long avenues of the delightful Alameda, 
whose shady over-arching branches continue to El Grao, the 
grades, or steps, to the sea. This agreeable drive is the lounge 
of the natives, who flock here in the summer for sea-bathing. 
The want of a good seaport as an outlet for her productions, 
is a great drawback to Valencia. Large sums of money have 
been expended in the attempt to make a port of this sandy 
roadstead, which is much exposed to gales from the south and 
southwest; but the French invasion arrested the work. The 
mole was to have been pushed forward in two piers, with towers 
and batteries at each extremity. The temporada, or season 



430 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

of the baths, is a gay period. The bathing-houses are thatched 
with rice straw. The road is then thronged with tartanas, 
which convey all sexes to their immersion, hissing hot like 
horse-shoes. The Grao waters are said to soften the female 
heart, and to cure confirmed sterility. 

Knowing the tariff, we had no dispute to settle with the 
boatman of the Grao, who rowed us back to the steamer; for 
of all the rascally tribe of watermen, those of the Grao are the 
most unconscionable, and having embarked on board the vessel, 
in a few moments we passed out of the roadstead with a stiff 
gale ahead and heavy swell behind us. 

The next morning's sail bore us along an uninteresting coast, 
which afforded little to interest, until we came within a few 
leagues of Barcelona, where the first object of attraction was 
the prominent headland of the saw-headed mountain Mont- 
serrat, so celebrated among the faithful for its miraculous 
image of the Yirgin, and its sanctimonious virtues. The image 
was made by St. Luke, and brought to Barcelona in the year 
50, by St. Peter. In 717, the Goths hid it away from the 
invading Moors, where it remained until 880, when some 
shepherds were attracted to the spot by heavenly lights and 
singing angels ; thereupon the bishop of Yigue came in person, 
and being guided by a sweet smell, found the image in a cave ; 
but it refused to be moved; whereupon a small chapel was 
built on the spot, on which it remained 160 years. A nunnery 
was then founded, which in 976 was converted into a Bene- 
dictine convent. 

It is rudely carved out of dark wood, and holds the child 
in its lap; the dress and wardrobe are most splendid, as 
emperors and kings vied with the devout in pious offerings. 
Night and day, lights blazed before the graven image in 



LEGEND OF THE VIRGIN^ CAVE. 431 

seventy-four precious lamps, which were plundered by the 
French. 

The legend runs thus : towards the end of the ninth century, 
the devil entered the body of Riquilda, daughter of Wifred 
el velloso, so the father sent her to Juan Guarin, the hermit of 
the Virgin's cave, in order to have her exorcised. The tempta- 
tion was too great ; and in one moment the exorciser canceled 
a chastity of a century's duration. The dread of discovery of 
his first crime led to the perpetration of a second, and he next 
cut the throat of his violated victim, and fled to Rome. There 
the pope ordered him to go back on all fours, and never to look 
up until pardoned by Heaven. Thus punished, he almost 
degenerated into a wild creature, and at length was found by 
Wifred when out hunting; at the end of seven years a voice 
from heaven told him to look up, he did so, and recovered his 
human form and senses. Guarin now led the count to the 
mountain, where Riquilda reappeared alive, with only a red rim 
on her throat ; her virginity also was restored by a very great 
.miracle, and she became the first abbess of the convent. 

The extraordinary mountain is called Monserrat, quasi 
"Mons Serratus," ITpiovmog, and it is, indeed, jagged as a 
saw. The legends say that it was thus rent at the moment of 
the crucifixion. It rises an isolated grey mass, chiefly of pud- 
ding-stone, being some eight leagues in circumference. The 
pinnacles range about 3300 feet high. The outline is most 
fantastic, consisting of cones, pyramids, buttresses, nine-pins, 
sugar-loaves, which are here jumbled by nature in a sportive 
mood. More than 500 different plants grow here. The box- 
trees are magnificent : from these the monks carved spoons, 
which, stained with red, were sold to pilgrims to assist diges- 
tion, and nothing eaten out of them ever disagreed. On the 



432 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

Virgin's day, September 8, sometimes 3000 people went up to 
her shrine. 

When the heights are gained by land, the views become 
extensive, sweeping over the sea to Manresa and the Pyrenees. 
Here and there, perched like nests of the solitary eagle, are 
the ruins of former hermitages, burnt by the French. The 
extensive convent is placed under a tremendous rocky screen, 
on a sort of esplanade, overlooking the Llobregat, which flows 
deep below. The ride from Barcelona takes from ten to twelve 
hours. Those who come in a carriage will find at Colbato an 
inn, Fonda de Monserrat, where you can hire mules to ascend 
to the convent : the charge for each, up and down, is two 
pesetas. Formerly strangers were received by the monks, who 
had a separate range of buildings to lodge pilgrims gratui- 
tously. Now reform has swept away both monk and welcome, 
although a sort of accommodation is to be had, being paid for, 
from a person placed to show the present abomination of deso- 
lation. Bring your provend. 

On one side of the entrance patio is part of the old edifice, 
and some crumbling sepulchres; the ruined cloisters, gardens, 
walks, are overrun with nettles; as above these rise rocks of a 
terrible perpendicular, a mass was always said to the Virgin to 
prevent their falling on the convent, which a portion once did, 
and destroyed the infirmary: the chapel is now sadly dese- 
crated. The Retablo was carved by Esteban Jordan ; the 
magnificent Reja is by Christobal de Salamanca, 1518. On 
this site, see the mural inscription, in 1522, Loyola watched 
before the Virgin, previously to dedicating himself to her as 
her knight, and the founding his order of Jesuits : he laid his 
sword on her altar. 

The jagged Monserrat towers in the distance, from whence 



LOYOLA, THE JESUIT. 433 



the Virgin smiled continually at San Ignacio, while doing 
penance in his cave at Manresa. This neighborhood is inti- 
mately connected with one of the greatest characters in history; 
whose life we will now briefly sketch. 

Ignacio Loyola, born in Guipuzcoa in 1491, began life as a 
soldier, and was wounded by the French during the siege of 
Pamplona in 1521. He was cured by St. Peter, who came 
down from heaven on purpose. During his illness he read the 
lives and legends of saints, and determined on a spiritual career, 
and, first, did penance a year in a cave, the Yirgin having 
actually reconceived him. Having dedicated himself to her at 
Monserrat, he went to Paris, collected a few disciples, and 
proceeded to Rome to ask for papal permission to found his 
society, our Saviour " appearing to him in person, to promise his 
assistance." Constituted by a bull in 1540, the order rapidly 
extended. Loyola was the chief for fifteen years, and died 
July 31, 1556, aged 63. He was recognized by Gregory XT., 
March 12, 1622. It has been calculated that the Jesuits' 
property in Spain, under Charles III., was worth more than 
three millions sterling. The Jesuits at length became too 
mighty for kings and popes ; and the order was annulled July 
21, 1173, by Ganganelli. They were expelled from Spain, 
March 31, 1767, under circumstances of singular perfidy and 
cruelty. How Aranda managed the blow with Charles III. is 
detailed by Blanco White, 'Doblado Letters/ pp. 445. 

No artist ever painted the stealthy grimalkin Jesuit like 
Roelas. Ribalta imitated Sebastian del Piombo, and took the 
Schidoni look of these " men in black from under the ground." 
Loyola adopted for the costume of his order the usual dress 
worn in Spain by the secular clergy, which consists of a black 
gown and a huge hat, a yard long, turned up at the sides ; it ia 

19 



434 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

the dress of Don Ba'silio in the Marriage of Figario : none, 
however, can understand the fine arts of Spain, as connected 
with the Jesuits, without reading his authorized life, ' Vida del 
Santo, Mereniberg/ Mad. 1636, 3rd ed. 

After passing these points of remarkable interest, the moun- 
tains assume a bolder outline, and follow the coast in a graceful 
succession of undulations until the terming pronionitory of 
Montjuich, w T hich is crowned by the Citadel. Barcelona soon 
opens to view with its lines of walls and fortifications, and its 
Catalonian towers. It is admirably situated on a rich "pla," 
or plain, girded by fresh hills, and irrigated and fertilised by 
the Llohregat and the canals Condal y Real. The advantages 
are counterbalanced by the town being a plaza de armas. The 
The garrison precautions impede free ingress and egress ; the 
place is exposed to sieges, and its proportions, limited by the 
outworks, cannot be extended to meet a growing prosperity ; 
hence, in addition to their turbulent rebellious tendencies, the 
Barcelonese have always been anxious to pull down their 
French-erected fortifications, or strait-jackets ; whatever, just 
now, may be their Gallic predilections, they have no wish to 
imitate the re-Bastilement of Paris. 

A fine sunset, lavishing its spendors over the noble and bold 
form of Monserrat and the other mountains on the coast, lent 
an air of grandeur and magnificence to the aspect of the port, 
before we came to a mooring alongside the quay ; a charming 
effect, which was rather heightened by the beautiful appearance 
of numerous villas of the citizens which crowned the summit of 
the environing hills. 

I had no sooner landed than I went to the new theatre on 
the Rambla, where I enjoyed a very fair representation of the 
Opera of Macbeth. The Liceo claims to be the largest edifice 



SCENES BEYOND THE GATES. 435 

of the kind in Europe, and disputes the supremacy of size with 
La Scala in Milan, and San Carlos at Naples. They say that 
there is scarcely an area of four feet in the difference between 
them. However this may be, the arrangement of this building, 
and the disposition of the boxes, were far preferable to the 
other, and there was but one fault, the house was too large 
for the proper conveyance of the sound. The palcos presented 
a brilliant array of beauty, who displayed themselves in the 
intervals between the acts, while promenading along the cor- 
ridors, or when taking refreshments in the grand saloon, which 
was gorgeously arranged on the first floor. Verdi was as com- 
posite as ever. 

Having returned to the vessel after the Opera that night, on 
the following morning my first walk was down the Rambla, a 
fine promenade made by filling up the channel of a stream 
which once ran through the city, and converting it into an 
Alameda with trees. The variety of life, character and cos- 
tume presented upon it, renders its attractions unequalled in 
Europe. On the side are most of the elegant houses in the city, 
and the two fronts of the Santa Cruz and Lyceum Theatres. 
I extended my steps outside the gates and beyond the walls, in 
the environs observed several picturesque groups of the people : 
women sitting in the open air making lace ; peasants, who are 
all trowsers, and bakers carrying loaves of bread of Brobo- 
kanago dimensions, some weighing thirty pounds. Other 
peasants, snoring in their carts, singing or drinking out of 
poraones, which they hold up with both their hands, and let the 
refreshing liquid fall in a rill down their throats. I ascended 
the hill of Montjuich, whence a glorious view may be had of 
the town, the port, and its charming environs, and thence 
descending passed again into the city by another gate, and 



436 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

wandered through every street and quarter of the interior, 
visiting the hospitals and military establishments and markets. 
Of course, the Cathedral was entered, with its elegant- Gothic 
cloister and rich light that illuminates its inner life ; another 
walk led me to the Plateria, where all the jewelers reside, and 
where you will find the heavy and long earrings that the 
peasantry wear. Besides looking into a number of quaint old 
houses, and up to some rambling balconies which seemed to 
have strolled out of the middle age of these antique tene- 
ments, I followed the course of the narrowest streets and lanes 
I could find, taking them just as I fancied, and not caring 
whither they led, until I came out of the paths of the New 
Alameda, and thence returning to the city, was occupied dur- 
ing the whole day in viewing the life of this truly commercial 
place, the first, and almost the only port of importance in 
Spain. 



the rambla's bed. 437 



BARCELONA. 

Barcelona is one of the finest and certainly the most manu- 
facturing city of Spain. It is the Manchester of Catalonia, 
which is the Lancashire of the Peninsula. Compared, how- 
ever, to the mighty hives of English industry and skill, every- 
thing is petty. It disputes even with capital, and is beyond 
doubt a better placed and handsomer city than Madrid. The 
Rarnbla divides the old city from the new; it runs nearly north 
and south. It once was a streamlet, la Rivera dew Malta, of the 
■" Mall," which bounded the west wall of Barcelona. The word 
Rarnbla, is Arabic, Rami, a sandy heap : it properly means a 
river-bed, which often in Spain, being dry in summer, is used as 
a road. The channel was, on the extension of the city, taken 
in, like the Boulevard of Paris; now it is the great aorta, and 
a charming walk planted with trees, like the Unter den Linden 
at Berlin, and is the fashionable promenade by day and night, 
and the Corso of the renowned carvinal of Barcelona. On it 
the traveler should lodge : here is the theatre, the post-office, 
the diligence-office, and the bureau for passports, the best shops, 
and most gape-seed. ^ 

Barcelona, according to local annalists, was a Laletanian 
city, and founded by Hercules, and 400 years before Rome. 
It was certainly refounded 235 B. C, by Amilcar Barca, father 
of Hannibal, and thence called Barcino. It became the Car- 
thago Nova of the north coast. The Punic city was small, 



438 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

and only occupied the hill Timber, now the site round the 
cathedral. In 206 B. C, it was made a colonia by the Romans, 
and called " Faventia Julia Augusta Pia BarcinoP It was, 
however, quite eclipsed by Tarragona, the Roman capital, and 
by Emporia, a busy Greek sea-mart. It was taken about 409 
by the Gothi-Alani, rose in importance, and coined money with 
the legend Barcelona: two councils were held here in 540 and 
599. When the Moors utterly destroyed Tarragona, Bar- 
celona, awed by the example, capitulated, was kindly treated, 
and became a new metropolis. After many changes and 
chances during the eighth and ninth centuries, in 818 it was 
ruled by an independent Christian chief of its own, whose 
twelfth descendant dropped the title of Count of Barcelona, 
on assuming that of King of Aragon. During the middle 
ages, like Carthage of old, it was the lord and terror of the 
Mediterranean, and divided with Italy the enriching com- 
merce of the East, and' trade was never held to be a degra- 
dation, as among the Castilians; accordingly, heraldic decora 
tions are much less frequent on the houses. The citizens were 
protected by municipal charters and fueros ; their commercial 
code dates from 1219. The Castilian connexion, with its wars, 
pride, and fiscal absurdities, led to the decay of Barcelona, 
hence their desire to shake off that foreign yoke. Thus, in 
1640, they rose against the taxation and violation of their 
usages by Philip IV., and threw themselves into the arms of 
Erance. Again, in the War of Succession, they espoused the 
Austrian cause, and the citadel Monjuich was surprised, October 
9, 1705, by Lord Peterborough, one of the most brilliant feats 
of that chivalrous commander, the Don Quixote of history, 
and Barcelona surrendered on the 13th of September. 

When Marlborough was disgraced, Barcelona was left alone 



FIRST CITY KEY OF SPAIN. 439 

to combat her two powerful neighbors. Louis XI V., then sent 
Berwick with 40,000 men to aid Philip V., whilst an English 
fleet, under Wishart, blockaded their former allies. The city 
refused to yield unless its " fiver os" were secured, and was there- 
fore stormed by the French; September 11, a white flag was 
hoisted, but in vain, for Berwick applied the torch himself; 
and when the sword, fire, and lust had done their worst, all the 
privileges guaranteed by France were abolished by Frenchmen. 

Buonaparte, in our times, obtained Barcelona by perfidy; 
he knew its importance, and called it the "first city" and key 
of Spain; one which "could not be taken, in fair war, with less 
than 80,000 men." In February, 1808, he sent Duhesme with 
11,000 men in the character, of allies, who desired, as a "proof 
of confidence and harmony," that his troops might alternately 
mount guard with the Spanish; this granted, on the 28th he 
seized the citadel, having drawn out his soldiers under the 
pretence of a review; Ezpeleta, the Captain-General, at the 
same giving up the fortress of Monjuich. 

The Catalonians, in 182T, rose in favor of Don Carlos, and 
ever since Barcelona has taken the lead in all insurrections 
against every established authority. General Lauder opened 
the ball by opposing Christina, in 1834 : soon after, Barcelona 
" pronounced" for Espartero in 1840, and against in 1841-2-3 : 
the low populace, especially in the San Jaime quarters, (the 
Saint Giles's,) being always ready to raise the banner of revolt. 

Barcelona is the capital of its province, the see of a bishop, 
the residence of the Captain-General and Jefe Politico, and the 
seat of an Audiencia. It has a university, academies, and the 
usual civil and military establishments. Population above 
120,000. The city possesses more European-like establish- 
ments than is usual in Spain, and they are well conducted. 



440 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

Although, there are few things more repugnant to English 
notions than all that concerns Justicia in Spain, a word at 
which the natives tremble worse than we do at the thoughts 
of Chancer}', Mr. Milford, a ^Devonshire magistrate, found 
these matters at Barcelona to be on a more European and 
better footing. The Cared Nuevo, or New Prison, built in 
1838-40, is spacious and well arranged; the younger culprits 
are taught las primer as letras, to read and write ; visit the sola 
de declaration, where the judge listens unseen and behind a 
grating, while the prisoner is confronted with the accuser, who 
alone knows the presence of the judge ! At the Casa de Cari- 
dad, founded in 1799, more than 1000 poor men, women, and 
children, are usefully employed. The Presidio, or place of 
detention for convicts, is on a large scale, and certainly is pre- 
ferable to the hulks; the culprits, during the term of their 
confinement, are instructed in different trades, and receive half 
their earnings, part at once, which they expend in tobacco, and 
the remainder on leaving, by which means they are not forced 
into new crimes by being cast without means or character on 
the wide world ; the other half is retained to defray the general 
expenses. There is very little attempt at moral reformation, and 
not half are reclaimed; safe custody rather than philanthropy 
is the principle : they are tolerably fed, as well indeed as 
Spanish soldiers : they sleep on the ground like pigs, on mats 
in long corridors ; generally speaking, there is an open grating 
at one end, at which sentinels are placed, who, in cases of out- 
break, not unfrequently fire in with ball-cartridge. There is a 
sort of school for the young offenders. 

To understand the localities of this city, the traveler should 
first ascend the cathedral tower, and then walk through the 
beautiful promenades with which Barcelona abounds; first, for 



UNRIVALED RAMBLE. 441 



the interior is the unrivaled Bambla; then, for the land side, 
the Muralla de tierra, which is both a walk and a drive. Com- 
mencing at the Puerta de Santa Madrona, below are the rich 
gardens of San Beltran, with the road to Monjuich, and the 
fresh fountains of Trobada, Satalia del Gat, and Pesetas. The 
Madrid road issues from the Puerta San Antonio : bevond the 
gardens and "torres" extend to Sarria; at the Puerta del 
Angel, a noble walk, made in 1824, by Campo-sagrado, leads 
to Gratia. The road to France issues from the Puerta Nueva; 
outside to the left, is a wide extent of densely-peopled garden 
district, to the right, the citadel, and beyond this the Cemen- 
terio, with its catacomb niches, and a chapel built by a Floren- 
tine named Ginessi. Xear the Puerta JSueva, begins El Paseo 
Nuevo, or "PI Lancastrin" so called from its founder, the 
Duque de Lancaster. The avenues are shady, and the stone 
seats commodious. The nereids, tritons, royal busts, all chin 
and nose, and sculpture, are poor as regards art. The garden 
"del General, 7 ' at the other end, was laid out by Castafios, in 
1816, with flower-beds, statues, ponds with swans, and aviaries. 
The walk on the sea-board, on the mural terrace or rampart, 
la Muralla del Mar, is, as at Palermo, the fashionable morning 
and evening lounge, sunny in winter, and freshened by the sea- 
breeze in summer. The modern Plaza del Mar opens to the 
mole, to the Plaza de Toros, and Genoese-looking Barceloneta. 
The Plaza del Palacio, is the resort of the official, military, and 
commercial classes. The environs of Barcelona are delightful. 
The sea and town from the base of a rich plain, girdled by hills, 
which rise to a mean height of 700 feet, from whence the river 
Pesos and the tributaries of the Llobregat descend; this "Pla" 
is studded with " Torres y Huertas," which extend from the 
city walls to Garcia and Sarria, the Brighton and Astoria of 



442 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

the merchants; vast multitudes go there on the holidays to eat 
and dance. Among the cits' boxes, el Laberinto, and that of 
Sefior Anglada, both near Horta, are the most charming. 

The streets in the older part of the town are narrow and 
tortuous : they are being gradually widened as repairs become 
necessary. The demolition of convents has afforded additional 
space; the well paved new streets are built in imitation of those 
in the Rue Rivoli at Paris, with arcades and shops, rather than 
after the old Catalan character. 

In la Plateria, the form of many of the ornaments worn by 
the peasants is quite classical and antique, although the work is 
very rude and coarse. Observe the huge ear-rings of amethysts, 
the " Arracadas," (a pure Arabic word and thing,) and the 
"Joy as" made with emeralds and colored stones. 

The principal Roman antiquities are to be found in the 
oldest portion of the town; they are but fragments, having for 
fifteen centuries been ill-treated by Goth, Moor, and Spaniard. 
In the Calk del Paradis are some columns built up by houses, 
which are supposed to have been the termination of the aque- 
duct from Colcerolla, of which an arch remains in the Calle de 
Capellans: there are six in one house; one is seen in the Patio, 
three in a room, and two in an upper garret, to which the 
antiquarian should mount. These have been called the tomb 
of Hercules, Ataufus, etc. 

In the church of San Miguel is a blue and white Mosaic 
pavement, with tritons and marine subjects, and hence consi- 
dered to have belonged to a temple of Neptune; others have 
thought it the work of Greek artists of the thirteenth century. 
In the Calle de los Banos are some old Moorish baths, now, 
alas ! converted into a stable. 

The churches are very ancient; some are of ' singularly elegant 



THE CATHEDRAL, SEU. 443 



Gothic, and many have the square and polygonal belfry. The 
cathedral la Seu or Seo rises on the highest part of the old 
town, and is built on the site of a previous pagan temple. The 
chapter nestled around, in the excellent houses of the Calk del 
Paradis. This cathedral is a type of the ecclesiastical architec- 
ture of Catalonia : its characteristics are the elevated flight of 
steps at the approach, the belfry towers, the lofty roof, sup- 
ported by slender elegant piers, the splendid painted glass, the 
semicircular colonnade which girdles the high altar, and below 
it the chapel crypt, with its elliptical arch; a profusion of 
Saracen's heads are used as bosses and corbels. The infusion 
of a Xorman style cannot be mistaken. The principal facade 
is unfinished, with a bold front painted in stucco, although 
the chapter for three centuries have received a fee on every 
marriage, for this very purpose of completing it. The 
original cathedral was built by Ramon Berenguer I., on the 
site of one older, and dedicated to the cross. The present 
one was begun in 1298. The coro and pulpits are of a good 
Gothic; the organs are of sober-colored wood, with Saracen's 
heads beneath. The Retallo Major is composed of a dark 
stone, w T ith pointed arches, and blue and gold ornaments; the 
pillars which cluster around it, forming an open semicircular 
frame, instead of the usual solid walls, have a very light and 
elegant effect. On each side is a spiral pillar of red marble, 
supporting an angel with a torch : the series of connecting gilt 
arches is delicate and singular; the chapels round the altar are 
churrigueresque, and filled with bad Rdablos, sculpture, and 
over-gilding. In a chapel crypt below the high altar, like the 
sepulchre of St. Peter's at Rome, lies, or is said to lie, the 
body of Santa Eulalia, the "well-speaking" Patrona of the 
city. 



444 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 



" Esta es Eulalia, la de Barcelona, 
Be la rica Ciudad, la joy a ricaT 

The silver lamps were plundered by the French. The sacred 
plate of the cathedral was very ancient and magnificent. The 
chapter paid to the invaders 40,000 libras Catalanas to preserve 
it, who took the money first, and the plate next, vae victis! the 
fine gold or gilt Cnstodia in the Sacristia alone escaped, which 
all lovers of old plate should examine. On the base is repre- 
sented the entry of Juan II. into Perpinan, October 28, 1473, 
after he had defeated the French besiegers. 

The cathedral has two noble towers; the arched support of 
that with the clock deserves notice : the great bell was cast in 
1393: the panorama from the summit is glorious; flocks of 
pigeons, as at Valencia, fly about, being forced to do so by their 
proprietors on the house-tops, to make them air themselves. 
Near the door of ascent is the light Gothic cloister with its 
faded frescoes and pleasant court of oranges; let in the walls 
are some curious sepulchral stones, dating from the twelfth to 
the fourteenth century. Here was the canonical aviary in 
which certain sacred geese were kept like those of the Roinan 
capitol. It afterwards became the palace of the Viceroy, and 
then a convent and prison. 

Second, and closely analogous to the cathedral, is the fine 
church la Santa Maria del Mar, erected on the site of a chapel 
of the Goths. Inscriptions near the south door record the 
date of the rebuilding, 1328; it was finished in 1483. The 
style is very elegant, the piers airy and lofty ; the painted glass 
very rich, in greens, blues, and reds. The gilded royal pew 
faces the overgrown, overdone organ. Observe the semicircular 
framework of pillars that surrounds the high altar, which, 



QUARRIES OF MOXJUICH. 445 

unfortunately, has been modernized with red marbles, gilt capi- 
tals, and tawdry sculptured angels and the Virgin; to the 
right is a good statue of San Alejo, and in the Respaldo del 
Coro, some pictures by Yiladomat, representing the passion of 
Christ. 

The ship-crowded port of Barcelona opposite this plaza is 
spacious, but never was very good, as it is exposed to the south, 
and is subject to be choked up by deposits from the river. A 
mole was begun by the Spaniards in 1439, but it was carried 
away by the sea; they then employed, in 1477, one Stack), an 
engineer, from Egypt, whose work has been strengthened 
from time to time. The breakwater, made of stones from 
the quarries of Monjuich, was improved in 1802, by John 
Smith and Timothy Roch. During the war, when the Medi- 
terranean became an English lake, the port, like that of Tar- 
ragona, being useless, was neglected by the French, and almost 
ruined. 

s The port is guarded to the left by the " Ciudadela " and the 
fort San Carlos. The former was erected by the French 
under Philip Y., as a Bastile to terrorize the citizens. In a 
military point of view it is of no great value, being commanded 
by Montjuich. This citadel is an abomination in the eyes of 
the town's folk; it is a bridle in their mouths, and prevents the 
city's increasing to its full commercial growth: hence the 
attempts to pull it down. The cortinas del Rey, y de la Reyna, 
which face the town, were demolished in October 1841, when 
the municipality, having first promised Zabala to protect it, 
actually led the way in the destruction, each member carrying 
away a stone in triumph. 

In order to compensate for the district destroyed by Philip 
Y., the Marquis de la Mina built, in 1755-75, the sub-marine 



446 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

suburb called Barcelcneta. The streets run in straight lines; 
the houses are low and painted red, and tenanted by ship- 
builders, dealers in marine stores, fishermen and washerwomen. 

The eminence Monjuich defends and commands Barcelona to 
the right. It was the Mons Jovis of the Romans; the Mons 
Judaicus of the middle ages; being the residence of the Jews; 
and some strangely-inscribed tombstones are yet to be seen 
underneath it. The present name may be derived from either 
of the former appellations. The reddish hill is approached by 
a fine zigzag road constructed by Roncali. The superb fortifi- 
cations are very strong, shaped in an irregular pentagon, and 
well provided with cisterns and casemates. The panorama, 
with the prostrate city at its feet and mercy, is magnificent. It 
was from the batteries that Barcelona was bombarded in the 
"Lesseps" insurrection, 1842; and again in the Pronunda- 
miento of 1843. 

Thus having concluded an inspection of all the objects of 
interest embraced in the present sketch and history of Bar- 
celona, I returned by the way of the Marina to the steamer, 
and staid on board all night, anxiously expecting to get under 
weigh in the morning. 

TO FRANCE. 

At eight o'cock on Sunday morning, a fine breeze favoring 
us, the steamer started out of port. Our course, by steaming, 
carried us close to the coast-shore, which was dotted with 
several pretty villages, among which the most conspicuous was 
Mataro. This place was remarkable, from the fact that the 
only railroad ever begun in Spain was completed at that point, 
which is only eight miles from Barcelona. 



LAST SIGHT OF SPAIN. ' 44 7 

Shortly after passing the verdurous gardens of Mataro on 
the coast, we came to the picturesque port of San Felice de 
Guixos, and sailing by the wind freshening in force we caught 
sight of Forte Vendres, which is the first French possession 
beyond the bold promontory of Cabo de Creux. Two moun- 
tains, scarcely a mile apart, rose high above the wild coast. 
Each has a castle. The boundary line of Spain and France 
runs between these two outposts. Far to the west of these 
hills, a magnificent outline of the Pyrenees was seen, but on 
this overcast evening they were veiled in mist and uncertainty. 
This was our last sight of Spain. Xot long after its disap- 
pearance we lost sight of the headlands of the French coast. 
The night was heavy and portended a storm. The sky was 
overcast in the morning as we crossed the Gulf of Lyons. Our 
course was due north-east for Marseilles. The wind had been 
south-west, fair, during the whole night. About eight o'clock 
we came in sight of the bold hilly coast in the neighborhood 
of the port, and the wind changing about ten, we made a fine 
entrance into the harbor of Marseilles, just in time to escape 
the brunt of a storm which was gathering in the heavens. 

MARSEILLES. 

This harbor, at the mouth of the Rhone, is one of the most 
singular, as well as the most secure in the world. Its entrance 
is about a hundred yards wide, but within there is space for 
1500 vessels. The narrow opening is strongly guarded, and 
made almost impregnable by bristling rocks and its strong 
fortifications. 

But Marseilles has few attractions. It appeared in a more 
quiet state than when we had previously visited it on our way 



448 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

to Spain. In fact, I hardly thought of my being in French 
territory, for such is the force of habit that I forgot for some 
time that I had escaped from my Spanish neighbors, and I 
should have scarcely been reminded of my absent-mindedness, 
had I not been brought to my senses by the sight of numerous 
little grisettes, wearing tidy little bonnettes, who were flitting 
across the streets, or busily occupied in arranging the goods in 
their neat little shops. 

To pass from the port to Lyons, and thence to Paris by the 
valley of the Rhone, and by diligence and rail-cars, was the 
work of a few days. I was too glad to get back to Paris to 
think much of the intermediate space. How glad I was to 
arrive in the capital, and what sights I saw, and what was clone, 
how I went to Franconi, was enchanted by the acting of 
Rachel, diverted at Mabille, strolled on the Boulevards, ate 
at the cafes, looked at the Barricades, admired the Gobelins, 
listened at the Opera, walked in "La Chaise," laughed at the 
Gymnase, smiled with Rose Cherie, grinned at Le Maitre, 
purchased at the Ville de Paris, chatted with Rodolphe, my 
old valet de place, ran to Versailles, quizzed at the Ballet, drew 
on my bankers, lodged at "La France," met with old friends, 
looked at le chat somerset, was advised, scyez sage, danced at 
the Chateau Rouge, feasted the monkeys, breakfasted with 
Don Ribas, went to the minister's and got despatches, would 
be only to relate what is done and will be always done by every 
American who visits Paris — and would only bore my readers. 



Our labor of love and these traces having been sufficiently 
lengthened, our readers are doubtless no happier than ourselves 



THE END OF THE TRACES. 449 

that they are now brought to a close. Here we rest awhile to 
reflect over the joys of the past. What thoughts of pleasant 
hours spent in innocent enjoyment and profitable result rush 
through the mind, painting with guileless images the whole 
landskip of that retrospect. Our endeavor has always been to 
instruct as well as to amuse. Few lines have been written 
which should ever cause the reader or writer to blush. We 
have striven to sustain a high standard of morality, and to pre- 
sent a better model for the elevation of a higher society among 
us. The cultivation of art — the handmaid of religion — in the 
Old World, has been earnestly commended on every suitable 
occasion. Refinement of manners, and that gentle courtesy 
which can alone arise from the education of the heart, and the 
development of Christian Grace, have been eminently urged as 
subjects worthy of our study and adoption, for without religious 
principle there can be no true gentility. 

Conceding the poetical accuracy of the line, that 

" The honest man is the noblest work of God," 

it is a pre-eminently grander truth, that the loftiest title of 
nobility on earth, is that of the Christian gentleman. 

While comparing the differences existing between Europe 
and this country, it has always pleased me to conclude that in 
the essential virtues necessary to a nation's prosperity, America 
has decidedly the advantage. In civil and religious liberty, 
the education of the masses, and the means of subsistence are 
eminently superior, because these are more universally diffused 
among the people. 

If by the sentiments offered in my works, my country has 
been made to appear dearer to her subjects — if this example 



450 TRACES OF THE ROMAN AND MOOR. 

shall have led others to a more careful cultivation of their 
leisure — if any heart has been made happier by any comfort 
of reflection, or any poetry of thought herein ; or one youth 
beguiled from the wiles and snares of vice during the perusal 
of these pages, such results will prove ample reward for our 
humble endeavors. Beyond this, we have thus experienced 
that, " Labor ipse voluptas," — for in all labor there is profit. 

In fine, I thank God for His unspeakable gift of health, 
which has enabled me to conclude this labor of love, in pros- 
perity and happiness; and sincerely pray, that in the coun- 
tenance of His grace, my efforts may ever redound to His 
honor and glory. 



THE END OF 

THE TRACES 

OF THE 

ROMAN AND MOOR 



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